Knights of the Old Republic Gone For Good
by SueofthePhoenixGate
Summary: Gone For Good is a series based on the game Knights of the Old Republic 1. It follows the adventures of a group of people united by a single goal; to save the galaxy before the Sith can destroy it.
1. Chapter 1

Gone For Good Chapter 1; Stir

**Chapter 1**

**Stir**

The clink of boots on steel sounded loudly in my ears and stirred me from my fragile half-sleep. I groaned and shifted underneath the covers of my sleep couch. I wasn't surprised to find that I was curled in the fetal position with the covers dragged over my head and the pillow jammed half underneath my head and upper torso. It wasn't anything new; I'd never been able to sleep properly after the _Urusai _had crashed.

Dragging the covers just far enough over my head to squint out into the room I saw my roommates doing the familiar dance for space. There wasn't very much room, military bunks like those on the _Endar Spire_ weren't exactly spacey. Hestra and Trask, my only male roommate, were changing into their civvies. They had the shift opposite to myself and my last roommate, Danika.

Hestra Kahn was an older human woman, somewhere in her mid forties or so. Her short hair was shot with gray but looked like it had been a nice shade of brown once. She had a rough scar that passed over her right eye, skipping over the brow, missing the eye itself, and catching on her cheekbone again to continue down to her chin. Her eyes were hard and soft at the same time, the iris' an unusual moss green. She was fit but solidly built, more so than I was. It did her in good stead during the off-duty wrestling matches the soldiers sometimes held on their off days, everything she had was pure muscle. I only knew because I'd wrestled her on my off-day once. It had been a good match even though I'd lost. I was fairly disappointed that I'd never been able to repeat it.

Her shift-mate was a different story. Trask Ulgo was friendly enough but he always held Danika and me at a distance he didn't with anyone else. I didn't understand why, none of the other human males on the ship held such a reserve. Well that wasn't true; the group of Jedi on board held themselves apart.

As if he knew what I was thinking Trask cocked blond eyebrows and widened his blue eyes in mock surprise. "So the sloth awakens," he said.

"Good. We have to report for duty in twenty minutes," Danika said from her perch on her bunk. She glared at me, the look striking on her with her stark blue-black hair and midnight blue eyes. If I hadn't known her better it would have been comical, she had a petite, heart-shaped face that shouldn't have been able to look that fierce.

I dragged the blanket back over my head and grumble-groaned. All I wanted was to sleep for a week.

"You know the Sergeant will put us on extra janitorial duties again if we're late." Danika's voice had a warning edge to it and I knew that if I didn't at least make an attempt to get up soon she'd do something drastic. Last time it had been a bucket of cold water. I didn't know how she got it so cold, it certainly didn't come straight out of the tap that way, and I didn't really want to find out how she did it. Deciding that I didn't want to repeat the experience I reached under the sleep couch and fumbled one-handed for a clean uniform. Long practice did me in good stead and I pulled the military style shirt and pants under the covers with me.

I knew it wouldn't work out to get dressed while lying down but like always I tried it anyway until it got too frustrating. With my shirt crammed half way over my head and my pants mostly up one leg I rolled off my sleep-couch. I didn't worry about being modest around Trask, military bunks weren't particularly spacious and you learned to get very comfortable with your body very quickly.

The ship rocked with an impact in the middle of the motion and I stumbled awkwardly with it into a standing position. Lights flickered overhead and a pattern of sirens sounded over the loudspeakers. I knew the pattern immediately; we'd certainly drilled for it plenty of times. It meant we were under attack.

As I struggled with my pants Danika finished getting her boots on and strapped on as many of her weapons as she could, both her blaster rifle with the modified barrel and her heavy blaster rifle, her vibroblade, blaster pistol, all her throwing knives, a wicked looking dagger she'd won recently in a bet, and her pouch of small mines. She had thrown on her light armor on over the uniform as well.

Danika checked her heavy blaster rifle and stood at the ready as she waited for the rest of us to finish gearing up. Hestra and Trask slapped on armor over their civvies, throwing on all their weapons with the smooth, unerring motions of long practice. They didn't run as heavily as Danika and I did so they were done before I was.

I'd had to fight to keep some of my personal weapons and armor but it had been worth it. I strapped on my medium armor over my uniform shirt and double checked all the equipment I had on my belt. Garrote wire, grenade pouch, comlink, poisoned dagger, hip-and-thigh holster, and extra clips for my slugthrower. I threw my sniper blaster rifle over my shoulder and checked my pistol before slipping it into its holster and fastening the thigh strap. While I was in the area I made sure the hidden knife in my left boot was secure. I clipped on my stealth generator as well, double checking that it was working properly.

Finally I quickly checked over my slugthrower rifle and double checked the rest of my armament. Everything was ready.

Cocking the slugthrower I threw Danika a broad grin. "It's ass-kicking time," I told her.

* * *

Once outside our bunk it was pandemonium. Soldiers of all shapes and sizes raced for their battle stations as the ship pitched through multiple impacts. We would have done the same but for Trask insisting that we stay together and head for the bridge.

"What the frack are we supposed to do on the bridge?" I yelled at him, feeling somewhat ridiculous about having the argument in the crowded hall.

Trask's eyes darted from the hallway to me and back again. "We need to find Bastila," he said. "This whole ambush was probably staged just so that the Sith could grab her."

I was about to argue that I didn't give a damn about some prissy Jedi half-twit teenybopper when Danika cut me off. "Sounds interesting," she said. "Maybe we could get some action instead of waiting to get our heads blown off when the shield fails." She didn't wait for Trask to take the lead and shoved into the stream of traffic, heading directly for the bridge. The rest of us had little choice but to follow. We kept our weapons pointed upward as we went in order to prevent friendly fire.

Trask was quickly proved right that the Sith would try to grab Bastila. We tripped over Republic dead before we encountered the invading Sith, and it was precious little warning as it was. Our progress slowed down to a crawl but we forged on anyway.

As soon as we'd engaged the enemy Trask triggered the nearest alarm and the sirens overhead changed in tone and frequency. It was unlikely we'd get backup, but at least we could warn the rest of the ship.

After a while I figured he shouldn't have bothered. It seemed like the entire crew of the enemy ship had poured onto the _Spire._ Hestra and I were holding up the rear and it seemed like we were constantly walking backwards as we fired our weapons. Danika and Trask seared a path forward, shouting back to us when to move and when to duck.

The Sith were organized and knew what they were doing and it showed. It didn't help that the crew of the _Spire_ had been taken by surprise and over time friendly chatter over our comlinks trickled down to nothing. My limbs felt strangely light and my mind raced double-time from the adrenaline pumping constantly into my system. I kept moving, knowing that if I slowed down or stopped for even a minute my body would begin to wind down and I couldn't afford that.

When we finally got to the bridge it was deserted. Republic corpses mingled with Sith and I automatically covered Danika as she quickly looted them. Trask and Hestra searched the bodies as well, but they were checking faces, not pockets.

"Bastila's not here," Trask said. "We have to find her."

"What we have to find is the fracking escape pods," I snapped, refraining from using harsher language. "She's a smart Jedi; she's probably already gone by now." There was no point in staying; the scene through the bridge port was not a comforting one. A nearby planet made a slow circle as the ship began to fall from orbit, a stark contrast to the Sith fighters whizzing past. The Sith battleship was nowhere in sight so I guessed it was somewhere above and behind us.

"She 'as a poin.' " Hestra's thick accent was difficult to sort out but I'd had enough practice to know what she'd said.

Trask looked like he was going to argue so I turned and walked for the side door that led to the nearest escape pod bay. "You can do whatever you want, Trasky-boy but I'm out've here."

Danika and Hestra followed me. So did Trask, but I never did check. I only knew because we took up the formation that had gotten us to the bridge in the first place, Trask and Danika leading while Hestra and I covered the back of the group.

The halls were empty of living beings, Republic and Sith alike. It was beginning to seriously worry me. "Where'd all the Sith go?" I asked as I swiveled to check a corner as we passed it. "You'd think they'd be all over the escape pods to prevent Bastila from escaping."

"Unless she was already gone and they knew it," Danika answered.

"No poin' in runnin' us all dow' like roden's when they cin blow th' whole mes ou' o' th' sky," Hestra added.

"Wonderful," I grumbled. If we'd headed for the escape pods first thing we could have been halfway to dirt-side already. Now we'd be lucky if we even made it to the bay.

"Wait," Trask said, slowing down as he approached the next door. He slowed all the way to a stop, a strange look on his face. "There's something behind here." He looked like he was sleep-walking.

"Not for long," Danika said, hefting her blaster rifle for emphasis. "Is it locked?"

Trask didn't answer. Instead he put away his blaster pistol and drew his vibroblade. Almost before he had it out of its sheath the door opened and revealed a tall, bald man wearing pitch black armor and holding a red-bladed lightsaber. He smiled evilly as he observed our motley group. Before anyone could react Trask charged him, vibroblade held high. "Run!" he called over his shoulder.

Trask's blind charge forced the Sith backwards somewhat. I raised my slugthrower to fire, hoping that my roommate's charge would distract him enough for me to get a good shot in. I never got the chance; as soon as Trask was past the door it shut behind him of its own accord. The light on the activation panel glowed red, indicating it was locked.

Nobody tried to sort out the door and help Trask. We were all soldiers and knew the costs of war. Even if we didn't, we weren't stupid. Not a single one of us had a lightsaber-proof blade and even if we did none of us was good enough to kill a Sith Lord anyhow. Infantry like us usually never saw them but everyone, even the best blade fighters, agreed that if you ever did see one you did one thing and one thing only. You turned, distracted him if you could, and you hauled ass out of there.

Grim-faced and quiet, not a single one of us looked back.

Even as I checked my corners and periodically checked behind myself it bothered me. It wasn't the fact that Trask had died, I'd seen people die before who I'd known better than my dead roommate. It was the look on his face just before the door had opened, the way he'd held the blade as he'd charged forward. Something about the whole thing just didn't sit quite right with me.

The ship rocked and sent us stumbling. I recovered quickly, my comlink buzzing as I scrambled back to on course. "This Carth Onasi, if anyone's still out there you have five minutes to get to the escape pod bay. The shields are down and the Sith ship is getting its fighters clear so that it can fire its main batteries."

"How can he tell all that from the escape pod bay?" I asked.

"Emergency monitors," Danika said. "I thought they were kind of over-paranoid when I saw them but now I'm reassessing that statement."

"Remind me to thank the designer if I ever meet him," I replied. "He's my kind of paranoid."

The ship pitched beneath our feet again and this time everyone lost their footing. Danika slammed painfully into me, the blaster on her back digging into my cheek and her small frame squishing my slugthrower against my chest. The alarms changed yet again, though I didn't recognize the new pattern.

Hestra did and it made her face blanch in horror. "Th' life suppor's failed!" she said in strangled tone of voice.

"Shavit! Get your ass off me Dani!" I shouted. She didn't need any more encouragement and scrambled to her feet, shoving against me for leverage. I made a small noise as the breath left my lungs for a moment.

We didn't bother with checking corners and looking for enemies down the corridors, reckless in our need to escape. The comlink buzzed again as we neared the escape pod bay. I barely heard the words but their meaning sunk in shortly after. It had been Carth again. Last call for the escape pods.

"Wait a minute!" Danika shouted into her comlink. "We're almost there!"

The door was already open when we got there and standing in the doorway was a tall tense-faced man wearing a jacket dyed in a blinding shade of orange. He had dark brown hair and a scruffy beard. Even caught up in the near blind panic of the situation I could see that he had lines on his face he shouldn't, like Hestra did. I wondered briefly who each of them had lost.

"Come on," he said as soon as he saw us. "We have to go."

"Uh..." I started. There was only one escape pod, really only built for one, maybe two people, and there were four of us total.

"Frack it," Danika said, slinging her heavy blaster over her shoulder and leaping for the pod.

We all followed her lead, Carth automatically taking the pilot seat. Danika crammed in on his right and I crammed in on his left while Hestra wedged herself in behind the seat, straining to keep her body away from the door as she touched the activation panel that closed it. She let her body relax somewhat after, her hip jamming painfully into the door.

"Hang on," Carth said simply as the pod launched away from the ship. I tried desperately to keep my attention fixed on the small viewport but over half my vision was filled with the brightly dyed nerf leather of Carth's jacket and it was difficult. It moved to fill almost my entire field of vision as he reached for the controls.

I flinched at the whole business and tensed as the pod shuddered when it entered atmo. I'd only ever been in an escape pod once before in my entire spacing career and the experience had not ended well. On top of that I was a mechanic, I knew exactly how this particular model was built and I knew what it could handle as well as everything that could go wrong.

Shutting my eyes tight I did my best to close out reality.

* * *

Escape pods are not built to be terribly sturdy, contrary to popular belief. And the controls in the pilot's chair are mostly for show, most of the systems are built to be automated so that even an idiot has a fair chance of getting the thing to the ground. Actually I take that back. Escape pods will end up on the ground one way or the other. Whether they and the people inside them are intact is another matter entirely.

All in all, the chances of actually getting an escape pod to a safe landing, or any landing you can walk away from really, are about fifty-fifty. It should have been completely impossible for Carth to pilot the thing at all with the three of us crammed in around him like we were packed in a can and restricting his movements. But he did it anyway.

The escape pod brushed a tall building, the tremor shuddering through me and rattling my body painfully. I had no time to recover as only moments later the pod slammed into the ground, a horrendous screeching setting my teeth on edge as the escape pod's hull scrapped along the duracrete. The vibrations were ten times worse than the brush with the building had been and the final stop slammed me forward into the control panel. So fast I barely registered the movement my arm shot forward to keep me from splitting my head open, wrenching my wrist badly in the process. As the pod settled I was thrown backward again and this time my head did hit steel. My jaws snapped together with an audible, chilling snap. Pain followed, along with the taste of blood in my mouth.

Lights danced in my vision and I realized dimly that I must have hit my head much harder than I had originally thought. The world seemed disjointed, when I tried to move my body seemed to respond a second later than it should have. Carth said something I couldn't quite make out, his voice sounding strange and far away to me. I sluggishly understood what he wanted, though, and I helped him extract my roommates from the pod.

Danika was unconscious and she was bleeding from a gash just above her temple. Carth carried her, grunting slightly with her weight. She might have been slight and petite but she was all dense, heavy muscle and she was wearing light armor and a near arsenal of weapons to boot. I helped Hestra limp away from the crash, her leg was broken and looked fairly bad from the way she was carrying it. I estimated that her boot had saved her from a compound fracture.

I don't know how long we kept going but eventually Carth set Danika down a small alcove in an alley somewhere. I eased Hestra down next to her and collapsed after, my balance screwed up as if I was drunk. Struggling to keep my attention focused, I listened as Carth told me to stay where I was and that he would be right back.

"Don' worry," I assured him with slurred speech. " 'M not goin' anywhere." I knew I should have been alarmed, slurred speech was a sure sign of a severe concussion, but I wasn't. Carth was, I could see it in his eyes. He looked like he might stay but Hestra reassured him.

While Carth was gone I fought hard to stay awake, suffering Hestra's sharp jabs to the unarmored area of my armpit when I nodded off. I knew later that if I had fallen asleep then I might have never woken up.

Carth came back eventually, just like he said he would. There were strange people with him that helped carry Danika and supported Hestra and I as we walked. One of them was human but the other was a Weequay. That didn't surprise me much; the species was not entirely comprised of mercenaries and bounty hunters as most humanoid species thought. He smelled but that didn't me overmuch for some reason. Hestra and Carth stayed polite but I could tell they didn't like it. The Weequay's buddy didn't even flinch, he'd likely gotten used to the smell long ago.

We were brought in the back way to a small medical clinic. There were two rows of kolto tanks, one against each wall. They glowed a soft, iridescent blue due to lights on the upper and lower parts of the tank. There were a few pallets there as well and my roommates and myself were each eased into one. I refused to lie down and Carth stayed with me, making sure I stayed awake while the Weequay and his human buddy disappeared through the door opposite the one we'd come through. They didn't come back and instead a dark skinned doctor came through the door. He checked me over first, shining a bright light in my eyes and asking me to do things. I tried my best to do what he wanted but most of it didn't come out right. When he was done he took Carth aside and talked with him quietly for a few moments. They both looked worried and after a time they stopped talking and Carth looked grim. He broke the moment with a short, curt nod. The doctor came back over and told me to lie down. He gave me something that made the world soften at the edges and got the pain to disappear.

I don't remember much after that.

* * *

Carth watched grimly as Zelka and one of his assistants took the blond woman to the clinic's small surgical unit. He hadn't caught her name and that troubled him. She could be dying right now. Dying like the rest of the crew of the _Endar Spire _had died.

It shouldn't have troubled him this much, Carth had not been in charge of the _Endar Spire_, he'd only been along as a consultant. If there was anyone to blame it was Bastila, she had been the one to ignore everyone's warnings. She had listened to the Jedi with her instead. "The Force will provide," they always said.

Force be damned, Carth thought bitterly. What had the Force ever done for him, for the galaxy? Nothing good that he had seen.

When all was said and done Carth had still considered the safety of the _Endar Spire's_ crew his personal responsibility. He had been the one with the most experience with the Sith aboard the ship and he should have spoken louder, worked harder to convince Bastila of what he had known. But he had not and the _Endar Spire _had died along with its entire crew.

A few had escaped. There were two soldiers in the kolto tanks right then, a male human and a male Cathar. One of the assistants had told them that they were too far gone to be saved and had been put into the tanks to make them as comfortable as possible.

So as far as he knew, the blond woman, her two comrades, and himself were the only survivors of the attack in orbit. Bastila could still be alive, had to be if the Republic was going to win the war, but there was no guarantee. Carth had learned a long time ago that there never was.

Eventually he'd have to go looking for Bastila, alive or no. But for now there was a life hanging in the balance, one life that seemed to weigh against all the others already lost in a way Carth could not understand. So for the moment he simply sat with his worries and fears and waited for the outcome, one way or the other.

* * *

Danika awoke disoriented but relatively all right. The doctor told her she had a very mild concussion but would be fine in a day or so.

"Where's Sabine?" Danika asked. It was the first sentence out of her mouth.

"The blond woman?" The doctor asked with a look of mild puzzlement.

"Yes, is she okay?" Danika was worried. She felt muddled and a little disoriented even though she had been told she was physically fine.

The doctor's brow furrowed and his eyes turned grave. "She's in surgery," he said. "Her prognosis was pretty grim, but head wounds are tricky. Sometimes you think a patient will be fine and they hemorrhage the next minute. Sometimes beings that shouldn't live do." He shrugged, his white coat rustling softly with the movement. "We'll see how she does when she comes out of surgery."

"Thank you," Danika said. She appreciated the man being honest with her; she'd encountered doctors who didn't before. It wasn't that any of them lied, not exactly, but some of them had a way of spinning the words so it sounded better than it really was. She supposed it was their way of being kind. It wasn't, though. It never was.

The man nodded and headed off to help the other doctor set Hestra's leg. The veteran looked fairly out of it and Danika supposed that they'd medicated her pretty heavily. She left them to it and walked over to Carth, who sat in a chair alone with a brooding look on his face. She didn't know anyone could look that serious in a jacket that particularly violent shade of orange, but she felt no urge to laugh at the sight. She'd seen soldiers like him before who seemed to think that every life of their fellow soldiers rested on their shoulders.

"You shouldn't worry so much," she said in a somber tone. "It's not healthy for you."

"Getting hit in the head or shot at by a bunch of Sith isn't very healthy either," he answered. He didn't look angry like some of them did, he just looked tired.

"She'll either be fine or she won't," Danika replied. "There's no point in agonizing over something you don't know is going to happen."

Carth looked up at her for the first time during as-of-yet short conversation. His eyes were a warm, mahogany brown, a soulful color. Danika found herself cocking her head almost involuntarily at it. "How well do you know her?" he asked.

"Pretty well," Danika answered, flopping into a chair next to Carth. "We've been together for several years. We were smuggling partners until our ship got caught by a Republic battleship and we ended up being conscripted into the army. We weren't really conscripted, not in the strictest sense of the term. More like given a pretty silly offer. Either we could join the army as 'special recruits' or we could go to jail for the rest of our natural lives. Guess which one we chose."

"And you don't care that she's in there fighting for her life?" Carth's eyes changed, flashing a small challenge. His voice was hard.

Danika responded bristling to the challenge. "I lost a whole crew before her. Thirteen people who raised me and taught me the trade, thirteen people who were like family to me. Of course I care. But I won't set myself up to be hurt like that again."

Carth accepted her counter with a slight nod, his gaze slipping away to rest on the door to the surgical unit. Danika left him like that for a few moments before speaking again. "I'm Danika Reed," she said, her tone stiff but not unfriendly. "My friend in there is Sabine Thade and the old veteran with the broken leg is Hestra Kahn. We were roommates on the _Spire._"

"Thade and Reed?" Carth spoke out loud mostly out of surprise. He recognized those names. He'd been about to look up the profiles before the attack. They had been transferred by request of the Jedi at the last minute, as had the 'suggestion' of putting Bastila in charge of the ship and radically altering its mission parameters. And now they were here, some of the last survivors from the attack. Coincidence? Not likely. Carth didn't believe in coincidence.

"What about it?" Danika asked. She didn't look guilty at all but Carth knew better. The best ones always hid it well. He did not voice his suspicion to her, however. That was always a bad idea.

"They sound familiar, that's all," Carth said calmly. He'd gotten good at hiding his reactions ever since the brass had threatened to give him an early retirement if he kept accusing people left and right of being spies for the enemy. He'd complied and quieted down, at least to everyone but himself. Just because some people thought he was paranoid didn't mean he wasn't right.

Danika shrugged and still looked maddeningly innocent. "You're the bigshot hero, at least that was the word around the pazzak games. If anyone would know our names it would be you. What did they have you doing on that Republic boat anyway? I never quite got that part."

"I was a consultant," Carth answered. He didn't elaborate, but then again he didn't need to.

"Ouch," Danika said with a flinch. "I bet that was fun." Her tone was bitterly sarcastic.

Despite himself Carth found a half smile forming on his face. "You can say that."

Danika smiled back, but her face quickly sobered and Carth swore he could see the wheels turning in her head. "We're going to go find that prissy brunette Jedi aren't we?" she asked at length.

"Yes," Carth answered quietly, ignoring the jibe at Bastila. "But not now."

Danika's eyes flicked to the door of the surgery room in a worried look. And then the next moment her eyes flicked away and it was gone, so quick Carth wouldn't have thought he'd seen it unless he had known better. That made him feel better for some reason he couldn't fathom. She very well might be a spy, but she wasn't as cold hearted as he'd first thought.

"Not now," Danika agreed.

They said nothing further and sat together in silence to wait for news.

* * *

Sabine was in surgery for nearly six hours. The junior doctors offered food and water to everyone and set up cots for them. Danika flopped into hers without a single word and immediately passed out. Carth helped the junior doctors move Hestra into one of the cots. The old veteran didn't stir when they moved her; she was still drugged heavily.

Carth thought he couldn't sleep but he was wrong. One minute he was stretched out on the cot staring up at the ceiling and the next he was being shaken awake by Danika. "Zelka's out," she said. "I haven't spoken to him yet. I thought you might want to hear."

"Thanks," Carth said as he wrested himself back into wakefulness. He did it fairly quickly; he'd had plenty of practice during the war. He swung off his cot and followed Danika to where Zelka was standing.

"So what's the news doc?" Danika asked. Her voice was grave despite the cavalier tone she tried to impress on it.

"It's incredible," Zelka said. "I've never seen anything like it. She was hemorrhaging inside her head and to be perfectly honest she should have died before we could relieve the pressure. She didn't, though. I can't explain it. It was almost as if her skull and brain were absorbing or breaking down the blood." The doctor shook his head in disbelief. "She should be fine," he said. "There won't even be a need to graft a new piece of bone where we opened her skull to relieve the pressure on her brain. It's regenerating itself already."

Danika blinked, the rest of her face frozen in a neutral mask. "Is that even possible?" She asked.

Zelka shrugged. "If she wasn't human I'd say she was. She is human, isn't she?"

Danika shrugged back, her face mildly puzzled. "As far as I know she is."

"Well whatever she is she's recovering fast. If she continues at this rate I should be able to release her in eight to ten hours," Zelka said. "I'll need to keep her here for at least twenty-four hours for observation anyway, just in case."

Both Danika and Carth nodded. In their respective fields they'd seen enough wounds to know that it was never smart to argue with the doctors on head injuries. "We'll need to do some scouting anyway," Carth said. "Is there anywhere around here where we can find shelter?"

"You might want to try the west apartments," Zelka answered. "They're fairly run down but the landlord doesn't come through there very often. Don't try the lower levels, the Sith took over fairly quickly and they're currently restricting use of the elevators."

"The Sith are here?" Danika asked. She looked genuinely surprised.

Carth nodded and opened his mouth to elaborate but Zelka held up a hand. "I'll take care of anyone you bring here and I'll keep my mouth shut but I don't want to be a part of your discussions," he said. "The less I know the better."

Danika hooded her eyes and moved her head in a gesture of agreement. "That's fine," she said. "But we can't go out there blind. What's happened since we arrived?"

"The Sith took over the government," Zelka answered. "They haven't enforced a curfew yet, but they likely will soon. Movement between the Upper and Lower Cities have been restricted and Sith patrols are roaming everywhere." Zelka gestured at Danika's Republic uniform underneath her armor vest. "One of the juniors has offered some of her spare clothes."

Danika ducked her head down as if just realizing her state of dress. "Oh," she said. "Right. Where are they?"

"Staff locker room," Zelka answered, gesturing in the right direction.

"Thank you," Carth said to Zelka as Danika walked off. "We don't have much money..."

Zelka waved Carth off before he could continue. "We were always government supplied before so it's no issue. And with the Sith running around everywhere there's no telling how long we'll continue to stay in business, so keep your credits. I'm sure you'll be needing them soon enough."

Carth could find nothing to be suspicious of, though he tried. There was simply no reason for him to be suspicious of the doctor at that point, not after he'd spent six hours in surgery with Sabine. When he finally settled into it, the gesture of kindness actually touched him. "Thank you," he said quietly.

Zelka accepted the thanks and went to clean up. Danika came back only a minute or two later wearing a pair of plain pants and a button down shirt. She still wore her light armor vest over it and when he tried to comment she glared. She was still armed to the teeth as well.

"If anyone asks we're mercenaries," she growled at him as she prowled passed him to the door. He struggled to suppress a laugh. Despite the fact that she was fairly well muscled she was still a short, delicately built woman. She looked like someone's favorite niece playing soldiers and bandits.

Amused enough to almost completely forget his suspicions Carth followed the black haired smuggler out the door and into the night.

* * *

To Be Continued....

13


	2. Chapter 2

Gone For Good Chapter 2; Reaching

**Chapter 2**

**Reaching**

_I met Danika in a bar. _

_It was a dark, smoky place made out of cracked wood and clearplast that was hopelessly grimy. It was the only bar in town so it catered to every species that came through. The bar keep was of a species I didn't recognize. I was fairly sure it was male, but it was tall, slender, and resembling somewhat between a feline and a reptile so I couldn't know for certain. He was good at judging what species could drink what, so none of the drinks were watered down. _

_I'd been there before; it was a serious hub in the region for travel, and therefore information. I was in the information business at the time, but things had been slim recently. All I had to show for it was a two-bit shavit blaster and a bottle of Alderaanian red wine. Well, it was wine anyway and it tasted halfway decent. The most important part was that it had alcohol in it and it had that aplenty. _

_I had a decent buzz going when she walked in. She was like an electromagnetic storm, all glossy black hair, penetrating midnight blue eyes, and attitude. She must have been no taller than five feet and was all slim and delicate, her face heart-shaped. She looked fragile enough to break. _

_The room went silent as she made straight for the bar, slapping down a five credit piece on its unwashed surface and loudly demanding a tall glass of Tarisian ale. She slipped the first one down like a professional, slapping down the empty glass and demanding a refill. The process repeated itself until she'd started to lose her hand-eye coordination, at which point she actually took breaths in between gulps. I was impressed, she had a staggering tolerance. _

_The whole business had been like watching a ship wreck. It was shocking and horrifying but at the same time I was unable to look away. It took a while to remember my bottle of wine. When I finally did I took a slow, contemplative pull on it, never taking my eyes off the woman. _

"_So," I said at length. "What brings you here?"_

"_Lost th' crew ina raid. Ship got all torn up, but I don't know how'ta fix it, so I'm gonna drink till I can' see straigh'," she grumbled over her drink. _

"_Hey, I can fix your ship," I said brightly. I completely skipped over the subject of her lost crew. "I won't even charge you. You just have to get me off this insipid rock once I'm done." _

"_Wha' kina word is ins- isis-insisi-" The woman screwed her eyes together as she spoke and sagged dangerously towards the floor. I felt a little guilty taking advantage of her, but at the same time she was drunk, emotionally wrecked, and practically begging to be nabbed by one of the locals. I figured I could at least get her ship fixed up, get it supplied, and get her away from some of the seedier life long enough to recover to a point where she could function. So I continued with the conversation._

"_Insipid?" I provided patiently. _

"_Yah, wha' you said." She replied, her eyes squinting and flicking back and forth to either sides of me. I realized she must be seeing double at that point._

"_It means boring," I told her._

"_Well ya coulda said tha' instead. Tha' woulda bin easier ta say." _

"_Not really."_

_We kept talking for a while but when she started passing out on her feet I paid for her tab and mine and half-dragged, half-supported her out of the bar. I took her back to my ratty, closet sized apartment, propped her up on the couch and crashed out on my bed. The next morning she'd been obscenely clear-headed and I'd done a lot of growling at her. She'd ignored that with surprising tact and fixed me what I later discovered was her infamous hangover cure. All I'd known at the time was that it tasted absolutely foul. It had worked wonders though and after we'd gotten around to properly introducing ourselves. _

_I fixed Danika's ship, the _Urusai,_ as best I was able with what was available locally, using both my own meager stash of credits and Danika's. It wasn't perfect but it worked long enough to get us to the next world, a small system just on the edges of the Mid Rim called Feidas. It only had one habitable planet called Dandos and we landed there, the _Urusai_ barely limping by then. We stayed there for a while and took odd jobs for supplies and parts. I mostly fixed things, other ships, droids, and speeders, anything people would pay me for. Danika did what she did and dragged me into a few jobs. I learned then that she was a smuggler and that I had a nose for trouble, an uncanny sense of when things would go wrong, and how. _

_We never actually spoke of what we would do when the _Urusai_ was completely repaired but we had come to an understanding nonetheless. When everything was said and done and it was time to leave Dandos we did it together._

_Many times during the years that followed I considered that the beginning of the end. But she always said that every end was a beginning in its own way. So who knows? Life is a tangled, messy thing despite the structures of order we try to impose upon it. _

* * *

I woke in a sleep couch. Not a hospital sleep couch, but a real sleep couch. It was placed in an alcove in the wall and I could see the top of the alcove was made from a plastform that was a grimy, off white color. There were cracks in the paint.

My whole body felt like one large lead weight and so I refrained from trying to lift myself up for a look around. With an effort I twisted my body and turned my head, letting it loll on the pillow. I was in a small, one bedroom apartment. There was a small kitchen unit on one wall, complete with a rather worn looking preserver. There was a single table with blue, cheaply stuffed chairs and beyond it a single door that I assumed led to the refresher. It was a simple design that served the needs of multiple species and was prevalent on many worlds throughout the galaxy.

Hestra was propped up on one of the chairs, her broken leg held immobile in a white cast and propped on one of the other chairs that had been turned to face her. She was cleaning her rifle, all the moving parts splayed out before her on the table. She spoke without lifting her head from the task. "How're ye feelin'?" she asked.

"Like someone rode a ronto over me," I grumbled. "What happened?"

"Ye took a good knock on th' head. Doc had t' cut yer head open te keep i' from bleedin' ye ou'. He sai' ye cou' leave th' med unit yesterday." She had a strange look in her moss green eyes even though she didn't look at me and I wondered what she wasn't telling me.

I felt the back of my head hesitantly and found a small patch of short, buzzed hair where they must have shaved it clear for the surgery. I was shocked it had grown back that quickly, the little patch was long enough that it could have been growing for a week instead of just one day. I knocked my knuckles gently to see if a plate or a graft had been put over the spot but the sound that answered me was only solid bone. "Um, why isn't there a plate in my head?" I asked.

"Doc said ye didn' need one," Hestra answered. "Said i' grew back on i's own."

"Is that even possible?" I asked, stunned. How had I regenerated a section of my own skull? Humans weren't supposed to be capable of that.

Hestra did look up at me then, the look on her face part amusement, part surprise. "Tha's exac'ly wha' Danika said."

I sat up carefully and found that besides feeling a bit weak I was fine. "That's not an answer."

"Don' look at me," Hestra replied ruefully. "No' a single one o' th' others 'as a clue, no' e'en the doc. I's jus' as well ye're on yer feet again though. Th' Sith are pretty twitchy abou' now an' Carth and Danika could use some help."

"Right," I said. It bothered me deeply that I had healed so well so fast, but Hestra was right. There wasn't any good reason to be worrying about it right then. I made my way to the 'fresher slowly, my limbs a bit sluggish from the drugs and the deep sleep after and I had to be careful not to lose my balance.

I cleaned myself up using the 'fresher's shower setting rather than the sonic option. It made me feel more clean for some reason, and I liked the feeling of wet hair besides. I had quite a bit of it all considered and it felt good to have it waterlogged and dripping.

The water cleared some of the fog on my mind and body and I was able to dry myself off and dress with deft fingers. When I left the 'fresher the first thing I did was locate my weapons, at which point I set to cleaning and inspecting them. I spread their parts over the empty table space. For a time, neither Hestra nor I spoke.

I'd finished cleaning my knives and blaster pistol and had just laid out all the pieces of my blaster rifle when Danika and Carth returned.

"Good to see you up, Blondie," Danika said, speaking out from the grocery bags in her arms. Carth came behind her with a similar burden and looked a little startled when he saw me up and moving about. Having already heard the extent of my injuries from Hestra I knew why.

"You got muffins, right?" I asked her.

"No, I completely forgot," she answered sarcastically. "Of course I got muffins you overgrown nerf."

I grinned broadly, showing off my pearly white teeth. "Thanks Dani, you're the best."

"Uh huh. Now get off your lazy butt and help me get all this in the preserver." I complied with another grin, leaving the separated parts of my rifle spread over the table's surface.

Danika and I worked with an easy camaraderie built over years of living together. Carth stood back a little and unloaded the groceries from the bags and onto the nearby counter. He was comfortable in his own right; his posture said he'd been the outcast more than once. But he was awkward at the same time, unsure of where he fit in this particular group. All the while Hestra sat at the table with her casted leg propped up and cleaned her guns.

Some of the food was kept out in anticipation of dinner and as Danika and I started to cook Carth got a distinctly uncomfortable look on his face and in his body language. For the first time since I'd met him I gave him a quick and discreet once over.

He was taller than I was, near six feet or so. But at the same time he wasn't particularly tall for a human male. His hair was dark brown and a little ragged, as if it had been cut frequently but not particularly recently. His eyes were a haunted shade of mahogany and there were lines around his eyes and forehead that were deeper than they had a right to be for a man at his age. I estimated him to be in his early to mid thirties.

The leather jacket he wore was definitely worn though its eye-searing shade of orange didn't seem to be too much worse for the wear. He wore a fairly simple shirt beneath it, the outfit complete with sensible blue pants and newish but definitely broken in boots. The only other points of interest were that he had no markings on his clothes to establish him as military and that he wore a small silver ring on the middle finger of his left hand. He'd been married, though I didn't think he was now. His beard and hair were too disorderly for him to have a wife to go home to.

Whoever she was she had probably done the bulk of the cooking, judging from the way he was acting. "See if you can find some plates and utensils," I told him. He accepted the task with a slight look of relief.

Danika and I were a good team. We whipped up dinner in a relatively short amount of time. Heedless of Carth or Hestra, Danika heaped a plate full of food and retreated to one of the sleep couches with it. I served up a plate for Hestra and when I brought it to her I found that she had cleaned my rifle and reassembled it. I thanked her as I handed off the plate and she accepted readily with thanks of her own.

Serving myself a platter of food I took it to the table and left Carth to fend for himself. He did so readily, but to my disappointment not quietly.

"We have to find Bastila," he said.

"Who?" Hestra asked.

"Prissy little brunette Jedi," I answered. "You know, the one all the officers were complaining about."

"Ah. Wha's so impor'an' abou' 'er?"

"She has this ability the Jedi cal Battle Meditation that allows her to influence armies," Carth replied. "I know it may not sound like much, but it's been enough to win a lot of battles we would have lost otherwise."

"Hmph," Hestra grunted. "So tha's i'. Always wond'red wha' all th' rucus was abou'."

"How are the Sith reacting?" I asked Danika. The question seemingly ignored Carth's concerns and I could see that he was flustered by it.

"Not well," Danika answered around a mouthful of food. "They're like a disturbed wasp nest. Anyone they even suspect is a Republic soldier is being rounded up and questioned and they're not letting anyone near the escape pods. We've been trying to lie low, so I don't really know much more than that."

I raised an eyebrow in Carth's direction. "We'll have to wait a day or two until they settle down," I said. I steeled my tone hoping to end the conversation there. Carth opened his mouth to speak anyway.

"We'll look for her as soon as the Sith quit chasing their tails so hard, Soldier Boy," Danika said, interrupting Carth before he could get started. "Until then talking's not going to get us anywhere, so let us eat in peace."

Carth glared at her but was fortunately smart enough to keep his mouth shut. "Don't take it personal," I told him. "She's always like this." Danika glared at me over her food and I ignored her.

"Hopefully me leg'll get fixed up afore you lot 'ave t' go anywh're," Hestra said. "Someb'dy 'as to keep ye ou' of trouble."

I smiled and snorted softly, digging into my food. No one spoke during the rest of the meal, a fact for which I was grateful.

* * *

The Sith occupation was chaos in the first few days we were there. Soldiers went from door to door harassing the populace in no particular order that I could see. Our apartment was overlooked because the landlord told them it was unoccupied. The other tenants stayed quiet as well. Normally I'd be suspicious of such action but under the current circumstances I put it down as antagonistic feelings towards the Sith. They were being fairly brutal about their occupation of Taris.

Despite the early mess the Sith settled into a routine fairly quickly. A curfew on the local population was strictly enforced, anyone caught outside after was taken to prison, wherever that was, and never heard from again.

By the fourth day things settled down enough that our motley group was able to venture forth and pose as a posse of mercenaries. I was surprised the Sith let us parade around as heavily armed as we did but we weren't given a second glance by the patrols around the city.

It was all one city, but the Tarisians split it into three parts. We were currently running around the Upper City, where the more well-off citizens of the planet, as well as the majority of the human population, lived. The Lower City was where most of the non-humans resided and was generally held out to be a seedy, dirty place. The third and final level was one that we heard mentioned only once and that most citizens refused to talk about. In a break from the precedent set by the Upper and Lower Cities the third level was called the Undercity.

The Upper City was beautiful, broad, spacious public walkways surrounded by tall, rounded buildings. Every visible surface was made from bright, reflective metal, some of it tinted black for aesthetic affect. Little cleaner droids buzzed around from place to place, oblivious of the invasion.

The beauty of the place was marred at one of the plazas. A large, dented pod had crashed into it, knocking over the hovering statue that had been there. The pod was mere inches from sliding off the edge and plunging down hundreds of meters into the Lower City. It was left open to the public but there was a large open space around it anyway.

I stayed silent as I passed it, as did Carth, Danika, and Hestra. Each of us moved closer to the others in almost imperceptible steps. We had gotten very, very lucky.

Not everyone who had made it to a pod had been as lucky as we had. We saw only one other pod as we walked through the Upper City and it had caught on one of the buildings and been ripped apart by the impact. It had finally crashed into a nearby apartment complex, killing five people within as well as everyone inside the pod. The bodies had been removed but the pod had not been and dark stains remained on the rough stone of the walkway below it. I guessed that the cleaner droids hadn't been equipped to deal with blood.

There wasn't really much information to be gleaned around the Upper City, what with Sith patrols strutting around with their blaster rifles brandished openly and all. At midday we bought lunch to go from a small cafe and decided over the food to split into two groups, making plans to meet up back at our apartment before curfew. I wanted to go with Danika but somehow ended up with Carth.

I let the Republic pilot lead the way, keeping a close eye on the local populace as well as the Sith soldiers. There weren't any Sith Lords among them no matter how many patrols we passed. That both worried me and gave me a measure of relief. Sith Lords, like Jedi, had a notorious reputation for knowing more about a being on first glance than they had any right to. Likely a Sith Lord could quickly place the fact that Carth, Hestra, Danika and I were no mercs but at the same time I knew that they were fairly valuable in military terms. The fact that there weren't any on the streets either meant that there were none on the surface at all or that they were doing something Sith-like in a building somewhere. I much preferred to imagine the second option as the first meant that the Sith fleet did not mean to occupy Taris long. They certainly wouldn't go to all the trouble of invading if they meant to leave an intact planet behind them when they left. They couldn't afford to leave an intact world behind for the Republic, even a planet that had next to no military value, at least that I was aware of.

Carth led us to a few shops at which we had minor success. We learned that more than two pods had crashed into the planet's surface. There had been about eleven in all but most of them had landed outside Taris' one and only city. Those ones had been quickly run down by Sith forces.

Four pods had landed within the city. We had seen two, the one we had landed in and the one that had crashed into the apartment complex. Both of the others had punched through both the Upper and Lower Cities and landed invariably in the Undercity.

Both Carth and I took turns trying to learn more about the Undercity but as soon as it was mentioned people got very tight-lipped. Eventually we abandoned that course of inquiry all together. Once we did that we learned that before the Sith occupation travel between the Lower and Upper Cities had been fairly easy, although most non-humans were discouraged from traveling from the Lower City to the Upper City. Travel to the Undercity was more tightly restricted, requiring a government pass to gain access to it.

We also learned that the Lower City was controlled mostly by swoop gangs and that law enforcement rarely ventured down there. The Sith were following their example for the most part, though not for the same reasons. Violence was rumored to have increased in the Lower City and a particular swoop gang called the Vulkars was shooting pretty much anything that moved, including Sith soldiers.

As the day wound on and Taris' sun dipped lower in the sky Carth proposed that we head back to the apartment. Frustrated, hungry, and tired, I argued until I talked him into one last stop.

The sign above the shop glowed in the failing light. JANICE NALL DROIDS: WHOLESALE AND REPAIR, it read. I assumed Janice Nall was the owner of the shop and as I led the way inside I hoped she wasn't human, or at least she wasn't the pompous ass almost everyone else had been thus far.

I was not disappointed. Janice Nall was an unusually colored Twi'lek female. Her skin was a pale yellow, her head tails mottled in brown. She was somewhat short, with an expressive, pragmatic face and bright green eyes. She was cleaning the counter as Carth and I walked in, her head tails curled tightly around her neck, the tips twitching. When she noticed us her brows knit into a deep frown.

Carth started asking questions first and Janice launched into an attempt to sell him a clearly faulty droid in her native language. Carth understood it well enough and if he had been just trying to buy a droid would have done fine. As it was he was skipping over important conversation points and generally making an ass of himself.

I briefly considered letting Carth finish the job but dashed the notion quickly. I had been the one to suggest we try one more shop, so I might as well put forth my full effort.

"I have no idea why the Sith decided to invade," Janice Nall said. "All I know is that it's suffocating what little business I already have."

Carth's brows drew down and I took it as my clue to jump in. "Why did you choose to run a business here in the Upper City anyway?" I asked. "I get the impression non-humans aren't welcome here."

The brown mottled Twi'lek eyed me shrewdly, taking note that I had made the statement with no bigotry involved. I saw it in her eyes when she granted me a mote of grudging approval. "There are no laws against it," she answered honestly. "And I could not have opened one in the Lower City at all. Female Twi'leks are not highly regarded as businesswomen."

I nodded in agreement, having traveled enough of the galaxy to have seen the truth of her statement firsthand. "So you have trouble keeping the business afloat under normal circumstances. But what is it about the Sith occupation that is making it worse?"

Janice's hairless eyebrows drew in as she considered whether it was safe to talk to me or not. I met her eyes squarely and tried to convey that I was a trustworthy person.

It must have worked, for the shop owner's bright green eyes seemed to unfocus slightly and her frown smoothed out, though a vague look of concern remained. "The Sith have confiscated all vehicles and heavy weapons. Less than half my merchandise but the highest priced. Also, they have a planetary blockade in place. No ships are allowed to come or go, so I have no revenue coming from tourists. I will be lucky just to break even this month."

"Surely it won't last long," I said. "Taris is of little military significance, so they shouldn't leave an occupying force behind when they go."

"They won't leave Taris intact," Janice said grimly, her eyes hard.

I cocked my head at her, thinking hard. Janice was a shrewd, intelligent woman and she had no love for the Sith. Sitting on a backwater planet like Taris she likely had little love for the Republic as well, so I knew what I was about to do was a gamble. But then again, there wasn't anything to loose, so I jumped right in.

I leaned forward, resting my crossed arms on the counter. "So what would you tell me if I said I wanted to take a look at the escape pods that crashed into the Undercity?" I asked.

Janice Nall's eyes automatically narrowed, but it was a calculating gaze, not a suspicious one. I heard Carth sputter behind me, but I held up a hand, a single finger raised in a signal for silence. The movement was not lost on Janice.

"You know, business had been _quite slow_ lately," the yellow Twi'lek said, her bright green eyes sliding towards the yellow droid.

I had anticipated this. "That twitchy little thing will blow its motivator before it rolls three meters," I said. "The little white one on the other hand looks pretty solid."

"He's not for sale," Janice said bluntly and a little too quickly for my liking.

"Oh, come on," I countered. "Everything's for sale, for the right price of course."

"No, I'm serious," Janice said, looking a little scared. "He was a special commission from Davik Kang."

"Whoever this Davik Kang is I'm sure I can offer you more money than he can." I almost bit my own tongue at the end of the sentence. I had precious few credits to my name and no way to make more until, or if, I got of Taris. There was no way I could out bid someone who could commission a special droid. I honestly didn't know what had come over me, but it was out in the open now and I fought to keep my face a mask of calm.

Janice looked very critical, eying me like I was crazy. "Davik Kang is the Exchange boss on Taris," she said incredulously.

_Oh_, I thought. _Well, that changes things._ The Exchange was the top criminal organization in the galaxy and it took a great amount of tenacity, power, and ruthlessness to gain a rank as high as being the boss of an entire planet. I would have to tread carefully if I really meant to get the white droid.

Wait, what? Cross an Exchange boss? What was I_ thinking_?

"What if I fixed that yellow droid up for you to Davik's exact specifications? You wouldn't even have to provide the parts." The words were out before my brain caught up with my mouth's intent and like before I had no choice but to play it through.

Janice gave me a long, hard stare. "Nine hundred credits for them both," she said in a soft, even voice. "And you have to have the yellow droid back by the end of the week.

"Done," I said, despite my misgivings. I couldn't very well back out now.

Janice pocketed the credits in a quick, practiced movement and relaxed somewhat. "If you want to go into the Undercity you'll need to know about the rakgouls," she said. "They are very distinct creatures, being about the size of an adult human and completely hairless. Their flesh is very pale; I have heard that it may even glow in the dark. Their bite is poisonous and if you are infected you will turn into one. There is no cure.

"There is no light in the Undercity. It has been abandoned for a very long time and from what I understand there are no functioning lights down there. Other than that the only thing you need to watch for is the rat lizards. They are very large and will attack either alone or in packs. Rakghouls are fairly stupid, easily avoided if you know how. But the rat lizards are smart, and they do not like to attack right away. They will wait until you are vulnerable.

"The last piece of advice I have for you, other than you should not even go to the Undercity in the first place, is to find a guide. There will be a few people in the Lower City who know the Undercity well enough to skirt you around the worst of it."

"Thank you," I said when she was finished. "I'll have the yellow droid back to you by the end of the week."

"What the frack was that all about?" Carth demanded once we were out of the shop. The yellow droid, as I had expected but hoped otherwise, had blown its motivator as soon as we'd cleared the door.

I sighed as I righted the little yellow droid, feeling suddenly weary. "Can you tow him T3?" I asked the white droid. He beeped an affirmative and rolled up to the yellow droid, spinning around and producing a magnetic arm from his back. "Thanks," I told him. When that was done I turned to Carth. "I don't know," I said to the Republic pilot.

I must have looked worse than I felt because all the bluster was blown out of the man in an instant. "You don't know?" he asked in a numb tone of voice.

"I don't know," I answered, and then added on impulse; "But I get the feeling we'll find out."

Carth looked bewildered for a moment and then his expression changed to one of suspicion. I knew his thoughts must have circled back to my head injury several days before and honestly I couldn't blame him. I couldn't get the energy up to be riled over it, though. I was bone-weary and on edge at the same time. My mind roiled with the contrast of my actions versus my intentions and for no reason I could place I knew that no matter how I thought myself into knots I would not be able to reconcile them.

* * *

To Be Continued...

12


	3. Chapter 3

Gone For Good Chapter 3; Standoff

**Chapter 3**

**Standoff**

"That's not going to work," Danika said irritably. She didn't even lift her head from the dishes as she spoke.

"You're not even looking at what I'm doing," I retorted around a mouthful of servo driver.

"It's still not going to work."

I sighed as I fiddled with the yellow droid's, T3-H8's, innards. I'd spent nearly my entire stash of credits on the venture, including the spare parts. I'd been able to save a lot of money by simply re-wiring the motivator, but there were certain parts I had been unable to avoid buying and the cost had been fairly considerable. I'd considered reselling them multiple times, but in the end had ended up back in the apartment with both droids and an armful of spare parts. I'd struggled with the whole thing for a while before coming to the decision that there really wasn't any way to overcome it. In the end I stuffed my objections as far down as they would go.

Danika was under no such compulsion.

"Leave 'er be," Hestra growled. Danika had been picking at me all evening. Apparently the old veteran had finally had enough. Carth stayed silent and grim faced, sitting on his bunk and rubbing oil into his orange jacket.

"I don't see what we need those droids for so bad that we need to risk the Exchange's wrath for," Danika grumbled.

Hestra tensed up for a good argument but my own pent up frustration finally burst free, causing me to spit the servo driver from my mouth and hastily disengage from the droid's innards. "Do you think I wanted this?" I practically shouted, my voice raised sharply. "How long have you known me, Dani? How many times have I behaved irrationally?"

"That's my point!" Danika countered as she turned to face me, her hands still dripping soapy water. "What the frack were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I should drop it!" I countered.

"Well obviously you weren't thinking it that hard since you're nine hundred credits lighter! Why did you do it, Sabine, why?" Danika's delicate, heart shaped face held genuine bewilderment more than anger.

"I DON'T KNOW!" I screamed, the words sounding as if they had been ripped from me by a thumb screw. I hardly registered that the voice was my own; it sounded that wrenched and confused.

Silence reigned. No one spoke, and everyone save for Hestra, looked totally shocked and bewildered.

"I don't know," I repeated more softly, sounding utterly broken. I felt it, too. It was like my very soul was being ripped apart by gundarks.

Danika's expressive midnight blue eyes were huge and held more sympathy than I could bear. "Sabine.." she started.

"Don't," I said, regaining some of my dignity back. "Just don't." I stormed past her, disheveled and my fingers grease stained. I wasn't entirely sure where I was going and I didn't entirely care.

No one followed me.

* * *

I found the seediest possible cantina I could find in the Upper City. It was tucked in a far corner and had a shuttered-looking door. After the first few days the Sith had lifted the curfew, but there still weren't that many people on the streets after dark. Most of them, I learned quickly, were in the cantinas.

The one I finally settled in had been carefully picked. I didn't want to be found if Danika came looking for me. The sympathy and pity in her eyes was something I couldn't handle, not tonight.

I could handle the pompous humans in the establishment, though. I almost relished my encounter with one such, a young woman obviously not used to being told no. She had mistaken me for a waitress and been highly offended when I informed her, in barely polite terms, that I wasn't. I knew I'd be dealing with her wrath later and looked forward to it with a grim sort of satisfaction. As a smuggler I'd always avoided fights but right then I wanted one very badly.

I ordered the strongest drink on the menu and ensconced myself in a table off in a shadowy little alcove of the cantina. No one joined me and I proceeded to drink myself into incoherency. I knew it wouldn't work to drink my inconsistencies into oblivion but it sure as hell was worth a try.

Confused, scared, and feeling very much backed into a corner I rocked gently in my chair and sang softly. "Ohh, the stars will never fade," I started, wondering where I'd first learned heard the song. It had been in a cantina similar to this one, many years before I'd met Danika.

No, that wasn't right. I'd learned it somewhere else. Someplace where I could feel a chill wind on my face and grass under my bare feet, listening to a boy's high pitched voice tracing the tune in the air.

* * *

_Oh, the stars will never fade,_

_Though they may dim with age. _

_And even at the end,_

_They burst anew into brilliant shades. _

I was young, and I was happy. He chased me through the shoulder-high grass, though I wanted more than anything for him to catch me. I wanted him to hug me, to tell me he loved me and that we'd always be together.

But I remembered running from her too, running like he'd never existed. She would always blow on my tummy when she caught me and I'd laugh until my face turned red.

They'd both happened at the same time, running parallel to each other, overlapping and blurring at the edges. But how could that be? I couldn't be in two places at once, could I?

_So, the stars will never fade,_

_Glittering bright in the darkest night,_

_That cools this little ship of mine,_

_No matter now hot I run the heater_

One day he was gone. They came and took me from him, told me to forget him. I nodded, ducked my head and told them what they wanted to hear. And when no one was looking, I snuck off in the dark of the night to see him. I promised him I would never forget him.

But no, hadn't Mother died? Hadn't I snuck out of the orphanage to visit her grave, the light of two full moons showing me everything I didn't want to see?

_Oh, the stars will never fade,_

_Not in my life-time no. _

_That's why I'm a spacer, you see,_

_Because these stars will out-live me._

He left to fight the dark and I wanted more than anything to follow. But they said stay. Everyone said stay. So I did what I'd done when I was little. I ducked my head, nodded. Told them what they wanted to hear and when no one was looking snuck out the back door. No one saw me go, but everyone knew I'd left.

No, that wasn't right. We'd run, she and I. Run as far as the _Urusai_ could carry us, out where no one knew any more about us than that.

_So, the stars will never fade,_

_Though my little ship will be dust someday._

I felt like I was being torn apart. My head felt like it was on fire and I flinched at every sharp movement. The line of reality was blurred and I couldn't be sure of what I was sensing. And then there was true pain, sharp and real. Drunk and disoriented I lashed out, screaming in surprise. The scream was hardly human, higher pitched and more rough than it should have been. I didn't understand why that was but it only made me scream more, venting my frustration and fear into the chill night air.

* * *

Once again I woke in the apartment, my body feeling abnormally heavy. My head ached, every sound seemed too loud, and light seemed to dig painfully through the cracks in my eyelids. I groaned aloud and pried my eyes open a fraction to see what was going on.

I was curled into the fetal position on my bunk, no mean feat on the narrow sleep couch. I hugged the pillow tightly against my chest, noticing that my left arm, which was on top, was bandaged from my wrist to my elbow. Exploring the rest of my body I discovered another bandage around my ribs. It didn't hurt when I probed the bandage gingerly and I suspected that painkillers were involved.

My mouth was dry and had there was a peculiar metallic taste on my tongue. As I rose stiffly from the sleep couch a trickle of unease slipped into the back of my mind. I couldn't remember much from the night before after storming into one of the Upper City's cantinas, only a flash of sound and color here, a smell there. It wasn't enough for me to piece together what had happened but it was enough to be worried. I hadn't been that drunk in years.

Halfway to the sink I paused and looked around. The apartment was not a large one and it took less than ten seconds to search the whole thing with my eyes. Unless someone was in the 'fresher I was alone. Glancing over to my sleep couch again I saw all my gear neatly piled and folded at its foot. Hestra's work, most likely. Danika wasn't nearly that organized.

I contemplated going back for my comlink but finally decided that a drink of water sounded better. Wherever Carth, Hestra, and Danika were they would be back eventually. I shuffled towards the sink, pulled a glass down from the cupboard above it, and filled it with water.

The liquid was cool and soothing on my throat and tasted just sweet enough to erase the metallic taste in my mouth. Once I started drinking I couldn't seem to get enough and downed six glasses before I felt halfway normal again.

After the basic need of thirst had been fulfilled I checked over by the table and found the array of parts and wires covering its surface untouched, the servo driver I'd angrily spit out of my mouth nearby. T3-H8 stood on the floor next to the chair, deactivated with half his parts exposed. The white droid, T3-M4, sat next to him and perked up when I came close, chirping happily.

Since I knew the language of droids pretty well I understood what he was saying. "Yes, I'm going to fix him up now. Sorry about all that shouting earlier."

T3-M4 whistled and beeped his thanks. I sat down rather more heavily in the chair than I had intended and carefully began to sort out M8's wiring issues once again.

* * *

Danika, Hestra, and Carth came back some hours later smelling of spicy food. I eyed them hopefully and was surprised when Danika produced a thick foam package for me. Normally she wasn't that considerate and I assumed that it was an apology.

I almost asked her what had happened the previous night but a grave look in her eyes and a subtle shake of her head told me that this wasn't the time. I wanted to press her anyway, but when Danika glanced quickly at Carth I held my tongue. Obviously there was something she wanted to tell me that she didn't want him to hear.

"So you guys have a fun outing?" I asked instead. "See any Sith with pink fluffy tails?"

Danika ignored the comment like she usually did when she wasn't in the mood for banter, Hestra snorted, and Carth blinked like he couldn't believe I'd actually said what I'd said.

"Oh, we 'ad a grand time," Hestra said. "Go' some disguises fer gettin' pas' th' security guards on th' Lower City el'v'tors." After she'd spoken I realized that each of them was carrying a rough pack. I assumed the disguises were in there.

"You stole some Sith armor?" I asked, guessing.

"Yup," Danika answered with a wide grin. "You missed out on all the fun."

I snorted as I imagined the tactics used in gaining the uniforms. I could tell Carth didn't approve from the fixed, stony look on his face. "I'm going to the cantina," he announced suddenly, dropping his pack where he stood and striding quickly out the door.

"Who lit a fire under his ass?" I asked.

"Dani had 'im distract somma th' Sith at one o' th' garrisons," Hestra answered. "She snuck 'round back."

I didn't know Carth very well but I had spent a whole day with him and I could easily imagine him prodding a bunch of Sith grunts with gusto. "He must have had fun with that, so why's he all ruffled?"

"They said some pretty nasty stuff about his family," Danika said. "I had to disable the security feeds for a while so I got to hear the whole thing."

That made sense, I supposed, so I switched subjects. "Now that he's out of earshot, why don't you tell me what happened last night?" I said with an edge to my tone. There was something wrong with the whole thing and I wanted to know why.

"Carth wasn't there," Danika said, her eyes worried but her body language showing all the usual bluster. "I found you and got Hestra to help me sneak you to that doctor, but we kept him out of it."

"Jus' make 'im jumpy, i' woul'," Hestra said quietly.

"You must have gotten into a fight, because you were all bloody," Danika continued. "You were still near where it had happened."

"I saw wha' was lef'," Hestra took up where Danika left off. "Look'd like an an'mal attack. Two trandos, armed to th' teeth and they was jus' cut down like grass."

It took a minute to absorb the words and the full meaning behind them. "But what does that mean?" I said slowly, afraid of the answer.

"The only thing I can think of doesn't make any sense. When Hestra helped me carry you to Zelka's she asked me what you were, and I said 'changeling', for no reason."

"Changeling," I repeated, tasting the word as if I could chew it and understand it better. That felt right, more right than any of the rest of the twisted memories from the night before. "Why did you say that?"

Danika met my gaze squarely, her eyes wide and haunted. "I don't know," she said softly, sounding just as broken as I had the night before.

* * *

To Be Continued...

9


	4. Chapter 4

Gone For Good Chapter 4; Shadowplay

**Chapter 4**

**Shadowplay**

After everything that had happened I found myself unable to sleep and worked through the night on completing the modifications to T3-H8. I even polished him until he gleamed, his yellow plating looking almost new. I hoped it would be good enough and sent him trolling back to Janice's shop, watching him go from the door of the apartment complex. I wasn't worried about him getting stolen; I'd seen plenty of droids walking around without their owners the day before.

"Ready?" Danika asked me. I sighed before I turned to face her. I didn't like what we were about to do, but it wasn't exactly any more risky than some of the jobs we'd pulled in the past. And if luck was with us we'd be one step closer to getting off Taris.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I answered. We walked back through the complex together and back into our apartment. Carth and Hestra were waiting for us there, thick tube shaped packs slung over their shoulders. Two more waited on the ground for Danika and me.

I heaved one over my shoulder and took one last look around the apartment. It wasn't much, but I knew there was a good chance I wasn't going to see it again and that fact made me somewhat nostalgic.

"Okay, let's get this showboat on the road," Danika said enthusiastically. The callus bravado was back and all the traces of vulnerability from the night before were gone.

"Aye, aye captain!" I threw back. Humor was always a good coping mechanism and I knew she liked it more than she let on. T3-M4 chirped enthusiastically, seemingly excited by what lay ahead.

Danika led the way out of the apartment complex and through the Upper City. I trailed behind her, Hestra walked beside me, and Carth took up a position behind her, comfortably holding up the rear. The one time I looked back at him his face was set into the same grim, hard line it had been the night before.

I supposed he wasn't happy with the prospect of posing as a Sith patrol in order to get into the Lower City. It didn't bother me, and I certainly knew it didn't bother Danika, but we were smugglers, used to skirting past the law with smiles and lies. As far as I knew Carth had made a carrier of being a Republic pilot and posing as the enemy made him distinctly uncomfortable. I didn't know how Hestra felt about it, but her face and body language revealed nothing, like it usually didn't. My guess was that she'd been at this game a lot longer than Carth and knew when to hold her cards and when to play them.

A few blocks away from the elevator Danika led us to a back alley. It was currently abandoned, and we covered each other while we changed into the Sith uniforms that we had carried in our bags. Mine fit well, but that was no surprise. Danika knew my clothing sizes well. The rest of our gear, except for our rifles, went into the bags. Carth argued hard about stashing his prized blaster pistols but finally relented and accepted one of Hestra's rifles.

Once we were outfitted we left the alley and walked towards the Lower City elevator. It wasn't the only one in the whole of the Upper City, but it was the only one the Sith were using, or allowing to be used. They had enough troops to occupy the place but not enough to control many different points of movement through the city layers. They wanted to know exactly who went where.

The armor was stifling, turning the mildly warm weather into unbearably hot. I had to fight the urge to itch every thirty seconds. I also had to fight the urge to swing my rifle off my shoulder. We were getting more than a few unfriendly looks from the population and not all of them were regular citizens. There were spacers and mercs among them as well, all of them fully armed. I had to remind myself that it was all a bluff, that they all knew that if they attacked even one Sith patrol out in the open they'd have the whole damned fleet hunting them in no time.

Danika, still leading the group, paused in front of the elevator guard and said nothing. We all tried to look imposing, but it wasn't exactly easy covered in full body armor. Luckily, we didn't really need to.

"Huh," the guard said. If he noticed T3 he didn't show it. I was relieved at that. I'd been worried the little droid would cause suspicion. "Are they sending another patrol into the Lower City again? I don't see why, there's nothing down there."

Danika shrugged rigidly. "Don't care," she said, her voice weirdly modulated through the helmet's speaker. "Just following orders. And the sooner I get this over with the sooner I can get to a cantina."

The guard chuckled appreciatively and activated the elevator for us. "I hear that. Just mind the swoop gangs. They're shooting at anything that moves, even us!"

Danika snorted but gave no reply. We all piled into the elevator, and as soon as the door closed I ripped off my helmet. "Let's never do that again," I said as I panted.

"Don' coun' on i'," Hestra said, still wearing her helmet.

"Yeah, we'll have to do this again to get back up to the Upper City," Danika said.

"With Bazzy in tow?" I asked. "Oh yeah, I'm sure she'll throw one of these on."

"Bazzy?" Danika asked. I could imagine the raised eyebrow that accompanied it.

"Just thought of it. Do you think she'll like it?"

I could very well imagine the sneaky smile as Danika laughed. "Yeah. I think she'll love it," she said sarcastically.

The elevator dinged and I hurriedly jammed the helmet back on my head before the doors opened. I needn't have bothered; there was no one to greet us. We stepped out cautiously, not wanting to be shot at immediately.

The hallway right outside the elevator was dingy, badly lit, and the roof was leaking. Steady drips of water plopped down into a puddle, the sound echoing around us. I looked to the right and saw a long causeway, clear except for a broken down speeder and the corpse of a green Twi'lek. I couldn't smell it, so it must have not been there long.

There was a door near the end of the causeway. It filled the entire wall on that side and was flanked by gun turrets and several bored looking guards wearing black and red clothing. I saw their body language change when they saw us but they didn't approach so I kept one eye on them and looked to the left of the elevator. The passage narrowed into a medium sized hallway, a large contrast to the open causeway to the right. It curved sharply only a few dozen yards from where I stood. What I could see held a group of young beings in distinct white and blue clothing. They seemed to be just standing around and talking, breaking into great peals of laughter occasionally. They were all armed, but their behavior told me that they were harmless enough.

Of course they probably wouldn't stay that way if they saw that we were dressed as Sith.

"Lets get changed in the elevator," I said. "No point in taking chances."

With various nods the rest of the group agreed and we did a quick reverse of how we'd changed in the alley in the Upper City. Carth looked highly relieved to have his twin blasters back and I smiled to myself as I slung my rifle over my shoulder. He was certainly a high strung one.

Once fully changed we made our way carefully down the hallway to the left. The group finally noticed us, immediately sobering at the sight of how heavily armed we were. For a minute I thought they'd let us pass unmolested but a teenaged male Togorian spoke before we could go too far.

"You came from the Upper City," he said evenly.

It was Danika who stopped first. The rest of us stopped only when we noticed she wasn't with us anymore. "So?" she said in a flippant, yet cool tone.

The Togorian cocked his head at her and the pupils of his violet eyes opened wide. He was pure white, a rare color for his species. He was the tallest of the group as well, standing at nearly seven feet tall. "You're not Sith," he replied. "But they let you pass."

Danika bristled and though I couldn't see her eyes from where I was I knew they were narrowing. Before she could agitate the Togorian further I stepped up next to her and cut her off. "We're not friends with them," I said. "We tricked them to get through the elevator."

Thick white whiskers pricked forward as the Togorian's head swiveled to look at me. His nose worked and his pupils narrowed slightly. The rest of the young group shifted behind him, their eyes darting from him to me and back. He was their leader rather than the first person who'd spoken, I decided. Something stirred behind his violet eyes, some mote of understanding. His left ear flicked and he snorted. "Watch out for the Vulkars," he said. "Their base is right over there," he pointed to the causeway as he spoke. "They don't like people from the Upper City, Sith or not."

"My thanks," I said. "We'll keep that in mind."

"Do that," he said with a slight flick of both ears.

Danika eyed me sharply but said nothing as we walked away. "G'd job," Hestra said. Carth made no comment, his face impassive. T3 gave a short series of beeps ending in a whoop, changing his light from red to blue.

"Thanks," I replied to Hestra.

We rounded the curve of the hallway and saw that it stretched on as far as we could see. Parts of the sides were open, revealing minimal speeder traffic beyond. There were a few platforms extending from the gaps in the hallway, allowing the speeders to drop off passengers. Many of the sides of the hallway not exposed to traffic held doors, two of which had guards standing in front of them. Most of the doors had holographic signs above them indicating what they were used for. One of the guarded ones, the furthest from us at the moment, did not. I noticed that the dark skinned human woman guarding it was wearing a similar pattern of white and blue clothing to the group led by the male Togorian. It was hard to make out any more than that since she was still some distance away.

The closer guarded door had a very clear sign above it that announced it as a cantina. The Rodian standing beside the door wasn't a particularly large specimen but he was armed and armored very thoroughly. He had a few scars on his face that looked like he hadn't been able to get kolto to get them to heal smoothly. I decided that I didn't want to find out the hard way how he'd gotten them. There was a large metal box next to him that was partially embedded in the wall.

"Where to first?" Danika said, aiming the question at the rest of us.

"Cantina's are always good for picking up on the local rumor mill," I answered. "I'm pretty sure the other door, way down at the end there, is the base for the Hidden Beks."

"So you think the white and blue clothing people are Hidden Beks?" Danika asked.

I shrugged in response. "Well I have to call them something other than 'the white and blue people.' "

"Good point."

"Tha' box is pro'bly a weapons lock'r," Hestra said disapprovingly.

"I'm not going anywhere unarmed," Carth bristled. His hands went to his blaster pistols immediately and his shoulders tensed.

"Fine," Danika snapped. "Sab and I will go into the cantina and the two of you can go cuddle your guns. Meet us back here in three hours." She strode off without another word and before I followed I turned to Hestra and Carth shrugged apologetically. Hestra nodded in acknowledgment and Carth remained stubborn, his hands still resting on his pistols. T3 beeped a question and I beckoned him over to my side without speaking. He perked right up and his servomotors whirred double time to catch up.

Sure enough as soon as we got close the Rodian eyed us hard and straightened his posture. "If you want to go in the cantina you leave your weapons here," he told us in his own language. He eyed T3 critically but did not tell us we couldn't bring him in. That was just as well since I highly doubted that I could just send him in Hestra and Carth's direction as I had with his yellow buddy in the Upper City. There was no way to know for sure, but I had seen a definite lack of droids walking about on their own thus far.

We gave over our guns and all our visible knives without hesitation. The Rodian seemed impressed when he stored each cache of weapons in its own compartment in the weapons locker but it was difficult to tell because his face was so alien.

I let Danika lead the way as we walked into the cantina. She was a striking figure, memorable enough to leave me fairly unnoticed behind her. I liked it that way. It gave me more of a chance to observe my surroundings and the people them. It also helped me keep an eye on T3. I'd worked hard to get the little droid and I wasn't about to give him up now.

The cantina was set up in a style common throughout the galaxy. The anteroom was dimly lit and held an oblong table where several games of pazzak were being played. A small crowd sipped drinks or smoked fragrant substances while they watched the games in progress. A little money changed hands and disappeared into various pockets and pouches with practiced ease.

The anteroom opened up into a slightly better lit common area laid out in a circle pattern. It was not overly crowded and unlike the cantina I had visited on the Upper City it was filled with a wide mix of species. The bartender himself was a solidly built Bothan, his brown fur edged in gray. He surveyed the common room with hooded, bored eyes as he dried a glass. Danika, ever the forward one, marched right up to him and slid onto a bar seat. She leaned forward and must have ordered a drink because the Bothan bartender put down the glass and began grabbing and pouring bottles.

I left Danika to it and went to explore the rest of the cantina, telling T3 to stay put before I left. It would be easier to maneuver the crowds without having to worry about him.

Smaller rooms led off from it, keeping to the same circular theme as the rest of the establishment. I wasn't very impressed; there were only three small music rooms and a fourth room holding some rough looking types and a smallish Hutt. It hadn't taken long to learn that the Hutt was named Zax and that he was the local bounty contractor. I also learned that if we had docs saying we had a contract with him we would be allowed to bring weapons into the cantina.

I was just circling around to where Danika was drinking and conversing with the bartender when a high pitched voice speaking Basic caught my attention.

"I told you to leave me alone, so give me some space, Bug-eye! Your breath smells like bantha poodoo!" Turning to find the owner of the voice I was surprised to see a very young Twi'lek female. Her skin was a brilliant ocean hue and her fierce eyes were a warm shade of brown. From the look of her she couldn't have been more than fourteen or so. She was short and relatively muscular for a Twi'lek but still slim. She was still a bit lanky and definitely had some filling out to do.

The blue Twi'lek's age and slight stature did nothing to diminish her fierce attitude. Her lekku twitched and curled angrily down her back and her eyes burned dangerously. I did not fail to notice the blaster pistol at her hip. I wondered how she'd gotten it past the bouncer; she certainly didn't look old enough to have a bounty contract.

The offending being, a reedy looking Rodian, glared at her angrily. "Little girl should not be in bar," he wheedled in his native tongue. "This is no place for little girl. If little girl smart, she run away home now."

The Rodian's comments only served to fuel the teenager's anger. "Who you calling little girl, Chuba-face? You're mother was a Hutt and your father was a bantha!"

The Rodian and his two companions balled their hands into fists. The Rodian himself uttered a verbal threat as well in order to reinforce his position. "Little girl needs to learn a lesson in manners!" he wheedled.

"Just a sec, boys," the girl said with a nasty grin. "Zaalbar," she called over her shoulder. A large, ragged looking Wookie huddled happily over a plate of strange looking food looked up at the call. "A little help over here? I need you to rip the legs off some insects."

"But, Mission, I'm busy!" the Wookie howled mournfully. "They just brought my food!"

"Quit complaining, you can finish eating later. Besides, you need the, exercise so get over here."

Zaalbar issued a heavy sigh from his massive furry chest, took one last teary eyed look at his food, unfolded himself out of his chair, and walked over to Mission's side.

The Rodian visibly paled at the sight of the Wookie and barely kept himself from taking a step back. "We no want trouble with Wookie," he spoke quickly. "Our problem with you, little girl!"

The young Twi'lek's eyed hardened. "You got a problem with me, you got a problem with Big Z," she said. "So unless you want to take on my furry friend, I suggest you greenies hop on out of here." Zalbar formed fists with his massive hands to emphasize his companion's words.

"Little girl lucky she has big friend," the Rodian grumbled as he led his cohorts out of the cantina. As they walked away, I noticed that they were wearing the same mix of red and black clothing as the people guarding the base that the Togorian had named as the Vulkars. No wonder they had such a vicious reputation.

I was impressed with how Mission had handled the situation. For starters all I ever heard Twi'leks speak was their native Ryl. And she had a personality just as forceful as Danika's, a highly impressive trait in and of itself.

As I approached Mission and Zaalbar the Wookie grumbled with his little blue friend. She wanted to leave the cantina but he wanted to finish his meal. They broke it off when they noticed me. The young Twi'lek was in a foul mood, her forehead creased with anger where her headdress didn't cover it and her lekku still twitching down her back.

"You handled that well," I said to her. She blinked at me for a moment as if shocked that an adult was taking her seriously for once. "I'm Sabine," I continued, holding my hand up in a general greeting.

"I'm Mission," the young Twi'lek replied, her lekku curling up around her shoulders as she perked up. "My friend here is Zaalbar. Hey, are you new? I know just about everyone in the Lower City and I've never seen you before."

"I'm very new," I replied. "I just came here from the Upper City."

Mission's formerly open and curious look closed into suspicion. She eyed my gear critically, including the tubular pack slung over my shoulder. "Are you with the Sith?" she asked in a low growl.

"No," I answered truthfully. The young Twi'lek didn't look convinced and I fought hard not to work into a sudden panic. I didn't understand why, but I felt it was important to be on the girl's good side.

Before she could storm off or shoot me, and I had no doubt that she could and get away with it, I reached into one of my belt pouches and produced my ID docs, updated when I had been conscripted into the Republic Armed Forces. I watched as Mission's face went through a variety of emotions, confusion, surprise, and then forced calm. She handed me the docs back looking the perfect picture of a teenager with a juicy secret.

"I know who you're looking for," Mission said in an excited tone that was barely suppressed. Her warm brown eyes sparkled and her lekku shifted position constantly.

I had no doubt she meant Bastila. I gave a meaningful glance around the smoky cantina, more for show that effect, and addressed the Twi'lek youth carefully. "Depends on who you're talking about," I said.

"Ohhh," the girl said, a sly smile on her face. "You want to come with me to the Bek base? I bet you don't have anywhere to crash yet."

"Sounds good," I replied. "Let me go get my friend first."

"Sure!" Zaalbar grumbled when he realized that they were really leaving and went back to his table to grab his plate, clearly intending to eat it on the go. Mission ignored him in order to follow me.

I made my way over to the bar seat where Danika had clearly drank more than she'd intended to. She had done that more often lately, ever since we'd been conscripted into the Republic. Likely she'd taken losing the _Urusai_ hard. It had been her last tie to the smugglers who'd been the next thing to family for her. If she kept it up I'd have to do something about it, though. She'd drink herself six feet under at this rate.

"Come on, Dani," I said as I laid a hand heavily on her shoulder. "I found a good lead, let's get out've here."

Rolling her black haired head too eye me critically, she noticed my blue-skinned companion. "Who's the kid?" she asked.

"Hey! Who're you calling a kid?" Mission barked, bristling almost instantly at the comment.

"Just leave her be, Dani," I said before my smuggling partner could start an argument. "She's our best lead right now. Plus she's going to take us to a safe place to crash."

"Whatever you say, Sab," Danika replied sarcastically as she stumbled into an upright position, never once spilling her drink. She plopped down enough credit chips to cover both the drink and the class and weaved in the general direction of the exit. T3 rolled after us, beeping curiously

I followed her and made sure that she remembered to recover all her weapons from the Rodian bouncer outside. Mission's eyes boggled a little at the shear amount of weaponry we possessed between the two of us. I smiled at her as I shrugged on my rifles. She just kept staring at me like I was crazy. Zaalbar looked unimpressed, but then again I couldn't really tell. He had so much fur that his eyes and nose were barely visible.

Mission led the way unerringly to the door I'd spotted earlier that had the dark skinned woman guarding it. Not more than three yards before we reached it did Carth and Hestra step out. When she saw us she got a very smug look on her face that made me nervous. Apparently Carth agreed with me because he immediately ducked a few steps behind the old veteran at the sight of us.

"I take it you guys found something?" I asked cautiously.

Hestra's smug smile grew into a grin as her full attention shifted to me. I squirmed inwardly and wondered what I'd done to deserve whatever she had up her sleeve. "We 'ave a lead on Bazzy," Hestra said simply.

"And?" I asked, knowing perfectly well I'd regret it in a moment. I did not fail to notice Carth scooting further back.

"We t'lk'd t' Gaddon Thek, th' leader o' th' Hidden Beks," Hestra continued. "Th' Vulk'rs've go' Bazzy u' as a prize fer th' race tha's comin' up. Gaddon sai' tha' if we git an engine back fer 'em they'll le' us ride in th' race."

"And guess who's going to pilot the swoop," I groaned. I was a very good pilot, one of the best on the simulators. Of course this had nothing to do with the fact that I absolutely hated doing it.

Hestra gave a vicious grin that displayed her perfect white teeth in all their glory. I didn't know what I'd done to incite this display of her wrath but I was instantly regretting it.

Danika looked from Hestra to me, then back. There was a pause, and then she let out a mighty guffaw. "Hestra, you sly dog, you," she congratulated between laughs.

"You," I said in a dangerous low tone as I pointed at the old veteran. "You will pay."

"Uh-huh," she replied. "Sure. Gimme all ya got, pup."

Danika actually collapsed to the ground, she was laughing so hard. I ignored her and continued to glare at Hestra.

"What's going on?" Mission asked.

"I'll tell you later," I answered. "So where are we supposed to get this engine?"

"The Vulkar base," Carth supplied when it became clear Hestra wasn't going to say anything.

"You can get in there from the Undercity," Mission supplied, her face completely innocent. I did a double take, not sure if she was serious at first. I quickly saw that she was and I groaned again.

"Oh joy," I grumbled. Sighing, I studied the horizontal, cackling Danika. "Are you done yet?" I asked her. The question only triggered another series of insane giggles, causing her to wriggle on the floor. "Well," I continued. "It's still early in the day. We can head down to the Undercity when Danika can stand upright."

"We can't," Carth said. "Gaddon said the armor disguises wouldn't work on the guards on the Undercity elevator. We promised to give him them in exchange for some text docs he has."

"That's just lovely," I replied. "We can go do that first, then."

Danika finally got herself together and staggered upright, breathless. I noticed that she'd finally lost her drink. "Alright," she said. "Lets go meet this Gaddon character."

I snorted. "Yeah."

Grinning, Hestra led the way back into the Hidden Bek base.

* * *

To Be Continued...

11


	5. Chapter 5

Gone For Good Chapter 5; Below

**Chapter 5**

**Below**

"Wow," I said quietly. "Preeeetty creepy, if you ask me."

"Yea," Danika agreed. "That about sums it up."

We were in the Undercity, outside the gates of the Outcast camp, walking over ground that was so dry it crunched softly under our feet. Everything was gray there, and there was no sky. That fact hadn't bothered me in the Lower City, but here it seemed like an omnipresent force, crushing me silently from above. The hair on the back of my neck was perpetually on end, and the lack of a breeze made goose bumps break out on my skin.

The others felt it too; I could see it in their stiff movements and tight grips on their weapons. Even T3 had his blaster out. Occasionally, the little droid let out a quiet, mournful, _'woooo.'_

The only ones immune seemed to be Mission and Zaalbar. They'd been down here many times, and had even gotten friendly greetings as we'd passed through the Outcast camp. They'd gotten friendly greetings from Gaddon and his overzealous purple Twi'lek guard too. It seemed as if almost everyone liked them. Well, everyone except for the Vulkars anyway.

As we walked through the wilds of the Undercity I checked and rechecked the glow rod on my belt. It gave off just enough illumination to see about a yard in front of me. The lights were not the usual white, but blue ones that Mission had found for us. She said that they drew less attention to us that way. I still hated it; it made me feel like a walking buffet.

And it didn't help that on the way through the Outcast camp I'd seen exactly what the rakghoul disease was capable of. The Outcasts had put their infected in large cages to keep them separated from everyone else. For some reason I couldn't fathom Danika had insisted on checking it out and we'd been treated to the sight of several infected people transforming into the rakghoul monsters. It hadn't been a pretty sight.

Mission lead our small group, her skin turned a deeper hue from the blue glow lights. There was a bounce in her step that hadn't been present in the Lower City. I hadn't known her very long but I could guess at a few things by now. The first thing I was fairly sure of was that she was an orphan. Gaddon and Zaerdra had hinted at such. I'd guessed at it before that however, back when I'd seen her get angry at the Rodian in the Lower City cantina for calling her a child. She'd been living on her own with Zaalbar for her only companion for at least two or three years to have that kind of an attitude.

So it was likely that the diminutive Twi'lek was happier down in the Undercity than in the Lower City because, despite the prolific amount of flesh eating denizens, there was no one down here to question her ability to take care of herself. And with a Wookie for a companion the chances that she would be attacked by wild beasts were slim.

Just as two massive pillars came into sight movement stirred just beyond the edge of our sphere of light. Everyone tensed up instantly, including Mission and Zaalbar this time. We were prepared for anything.

Except for a ragged looking group of beings that looked just as tense as we did.

Each group approached the other cautiously, unsure of the others intentions. When they got closer I saw that the group consisted of three humans and a Weequay. Unlike us they carried white glow lights, and because of this I could see the color and cut of their clothes. They didn't dress like swoop gang members, or at least they didn't wear colors that identified them as either Beks or Vulkars. The oldest human of the group looked to be in his late thirties to early forties and wore a very distinct kind of armor, very clearly Mandalorian make. It was lighter than the traditional full body armor and did not seem to come with a helmet, but it was unmistakable none the less.

I turned my head away from the group to briefly check on Carth. He'd tensed up every time we'd passed a Sith patrol and I knew he'd been in the military long enough to have fought in the Mandalorian Wars so I worried about his reaction now. We were basically in the middle of nowhere and we outnumbered the group by two people. There was a good chance that he'd try to start something.

Sure enough the Republic pilot had both blasters out and ready. I made a _psst_ nose at him to catch his attention and when he looked my way I gave him a hard glare accompanied by a swiping motion across my throat. I was trying to convey that he should hold off shooting anybody but I couldn't tell if the message got across or not.

Turning back to the Mandalorian led band I noticed one of the younger humans was pretty twitchy. Before we could move any closer he brandished his blaster pistol and spoke. "Don't come any closer!" he said sharply. "I'm not afraid to use this blaster if I have to!"

"Settle down, kid," the Mandalorian said with a disgusted look on his face. "Do they look like rakghouls to you, you mindless _hut'uun_?"

"B-but..." the twitchy kid started.

"Shut up," the Mandalorian snapped, cutting him off. "And keep your blaster in its holster until there's something you really need to aim at."

A little shudder ran through my body during the exchange. I knew that word, _hut'uun. _It was a Mandalorian word. It meant coward. Instantly I felt a mild disgust for the twitchy young human. Coward was one of the harshest things a Mandalorian could call another, so I knew that the large man was not using it lightly.

There was something more, though. Something in the way the Mandalorian man moved underneath his armor, something about the way he turned his head when he spoke. It was... intoxicating.

Wait, what?

"What are you lot doing down here?" Danika asked, still a little drunk from her venture at the cantina earlier.

"Same thing you are," The Mandalorian said. "And I strongly suggest you drop it. There's nothing left that's worth taking on those pods. I lost five men to those damn rakghouls."

"We're not looking for escape pods," I said evenly. "We're hunting Vulkars."

As soon as the Mandalorian's attention turned to me I noticed he had gray eyes like brushed durasteel. Those eyes locked into mine, widened a little as if in shock or surprise and then bore into my soul. It was like the ground had fallen from beneath my feet. The confusion, frustration, and fear from the past few days faded and everything became clear. I knew.

I knew him.

"Canderous! I heard something!" The young human's voice cut through my daze and seemed to lick my skin like a whip. I jerked slightly and blinked rapidly, picking up on what had caught the _chakaar_'s attention a few moments later. Creatures just like the ones I'd seen in a cage leaped out of the darkness.

The Mandalorian, Canderous, picked up on it as well. He spun and lifted his rifle, shouting at his group. "Looks like we've got company! Get those blasters firing, boys!"

Without hesitation, my companions and I joined the fight. The rakghouls were short things, low to the ground and eyeless with thick, gray hides that were yet thin in some places. They had vicious claws and teeth, with which they attacked. Danika swung her long barreled rifle off her shoulder in one, easy motion, slipping the safety off as an afterthought. Hestra had already been carrying her blaster in her hands and had no prep left to do other than lift it to aim at a target. Carth was likewise prepared. I was not and it cost me a few precious seconds. The only disadvantage of using a slugthrower was that it took longer to prep.

Although they'd been relatively comfortable before Mission and Zaalbar whipped out their respective weapons faster than I would have thought. The Wookie let out an impressive roar at the rapidly approaching pack of rakghouls.

My slugthrower coughed as I fired it, recoiling into my armored shoulder. It was joined by the higher pitched whines of blaster fire and a heavier cough of another slugthrower. A quick glance revealed that it belonged to Canderous. It gave me a thrill to see him, hard faced with his weapon braced against his shoulder as if it truly belonged there.

The mutant creatures were fast. One of them made it through the line of blaster fire and leaped at me. Time seemed to slow down. My slugthrower jammed, but it was the easiest thing in the universe to tilt it up and draw my dagger. The rakghoul seemed to hang in the air and when it got close enough I slashed once, twice, and it was gone, sailing past me to land in a lifeless heap. Another came at me from my right, but it was oh so simple to throw my dagger into its gaping maw.

And then time came rushing in again. The other rakghouls were dead, and only two of Canderous' men were still standing. I was somewhat comforted to see that the _chakaar_ was not one of them.

Canderous had been watching me as I'd taken down the last two rakghouls, I knew that without hesitation even though I couldn't read the strange expression on his face. I refused to look at his eyes and get lost again. "Okay boys," he growled, never once looking away from me. "We're getting out of here before I lose anyone else. I can't carry all this salvage back by myself!"

And that was it. He walked away and didn't say goodbye, didn't linger on my face any longer than he had to. Something ached at that, something deep, deep down.

"We should get moving afore m're nas'y critters sh'w up," Hestra said stiffly. I turned to look at her and realized that I must have been staring after Canderous like a lovestruck kath hound. She had the same look on her face I'd seen many times before back on the _Endar Spire_. It was an awkward look and she got it every time a couple of soldiers had shown affection in public.

A quick glance around the rest of the group told me no one else had noticed, thankfully. As Mission shrugged and then led the way again I drifted to the middle of the group, flicked the safety on my slugthrower, and fixed the jam. The weapon would need to be cleaned again.

It was then that I realized, out of nowhere, that Hestra's accent shifted from time to time. Something about it struck a chord within me, and as I watched her walk I wondered if it was her accent or her clear speech that was the lie.

* * *

_I had been born on Deralia. It was a small Outer Rim world with a small yellow sun and two moons. There was a thick asteroid belt that made hyperspace travel difficult, keeping it off most trade routes. A few ships passed through there still, but they were few, only enough to support one very small spaceport. I loved it there. I loved seeing the ships come in, seeing all the different species that made up the crew of those ships. _

_It was enough to make me want to leave one day. And it wasn't that I had a difficult home life. It was simply that little Deralia was to... stable. It rarely changed, and even though it had been where I'd been born it had never been home. _

_So I learned how to fix ships. Droids and other machines came later. By the time I was fifteen I could take apart and rebuild nearly anything. Any make, any model and if I didn't know it I'd learn it very quickly. I got my piloting license around the same time, though I considered it a necessary evil. I didn't like piloting, never had. I much preferred to be down by the engine, feeling the ship run beneath me. _

_The year I turned nineteen I managed to get hired as a mechanic and spare pilot for a small freighter passing through to the core. I left the ship fairly quickly, eager to strike out on my own and much romanticized with the information trade. That illusion shattered quickly and landed me once again on the Outer Rim, sitting in a scruffy bar and miserable. I can't completely regret that however, since it led me to Danika and her ship. _

_The _Urusai_ had been home. I'd come to know every bolt and weld in it. Every part that needed to be replaced I did so myself, and every time we refueled I supervised the local dock workers. I had loved that ship with a deep, abiding passion that I hadn't loved my homeworld. I wouldn't trade the years I spent on that ship for anything._

_And then the _Urusai_ broke down out in the middle of a remote hyperspace route. We'd sent out a distress signal, knowing we were taking a risk but having no choice. It had ultimately been a losing bet as we'd been caught by a Republic battleship, and in the end they'd found us out as smugglers and taken Danika's ship away. The home I'd known so briefly was gone as quickly as it had come. _

_I'd seen many beings in the Republic Armed Forces that were former smugglers or mercs. Unlike Danika and I they had merely been hired and I wondered why we hadn't been offered the same deal. What was so special about two female smugglers with a patchwork ship that they had to detain us forcibly? Why had we been singled out? _

_I knew they were both questions I may never find the answers too and I decided at some point that I don't remember that it was still worth pursuing. _

* * *

"Do we _have_ to go down there?" I asked for the third time.

"Quit whining!" Danika snapped. "Mission said that this is how we get to the back entrance of the Vulkar's base. And since the front entrance is two feet of reinforced durasteel flanked by guards and gun turrets we're taking this way."

The others had already gone down the hatch and were waiting for Danika and I to follow. Danika had nothing to complain about, her sense of smell was practically non-existent. I on the other hand had an excellent sense of smell and already had a headache from the stench wafting up from the very hatch Danika was trying to convince me to descend into.

Danika was right, however. This was the best way into the Vulkar base, even if it did smell bad enough to make my eyes water. I took a deep breath of fresh air and plunged into the hatch before I could think twice. I landed hard on the metal walkway below, feeling the shock of it all the way up to my knees. Mission, Zaalbar, Hestra, and Carth jumped at my very sudden descent.

"Why did you jump down?" Carth asked, startled.

"Didn't want to climb down," I answered, my voice altered because I was pinching my nose. The headache had intensified as soon as I'd landed and my eyes refused to stop watering. "Didn't want to have a chance to re-think it."

Mission snorted. "I don't see what the big deal is," she said. "It doesn't smell _that _bad."

There was no hesitation as I growled at the diminutive Twi'lek girl and it was so intense and animal-like that I startled her a second time.

"Oh, stop that," Danika said in an attitude of long familiarity. Her boots made a small clang as they hit the grille floor of the sewer. She thrust something in front of my face. "Stick these in your nose and leave the kid alone." It took me a moment to clear my eyes and once I did I saw the two small pieces of brightly colored material in her hand.

I snatched the nose plugs out of her hand and shoved them into my nasal cavities gratefully. "Thank you!" I said exuberantly. "You're my best friend _ever._"

"Uh-huh, just get moving," Danika replied grudgingly.

"I still don't see what the big deal is," Mission grumbled.

"I have a very keen sense of smell," I told her. "It stinks worse than a rancor down here to me."

"Huh," Mission huffed. She shrugged of the statement quickly and continued on ahead, Zaalbar trailing like a silent, furry mountain behind her.

The rest of us followed the teenager and her companion in a loose and largely unintentional formation. I hung towards the back, ending up walking next to Hestra. I carried my heavy slugthrower rifle across my chest, my pointer finger resting on the guard above the trigger. The safety was off; I didn't want to get caught sleeping.

Everything was cast in a blue light, making stains along the walls and floor indistinguishable. I was glad for that as we passed more than one desiccated skeleton as we walked. There were droppings occasionally too, and nudging them with my foot I discovered that they were old, dried to the consistency of rock. Mission was leading us well.

"Hey, Mission?" I called, skirting around Carth and Danika so I could walk next to the Twi'lek girl. "I heard there were lizard rats down here. Is there anything else living down here that we need to worry about?"

"Not really," she answered, flopping one lekku over her opposite shoulder. "They mostly eat the big bugs that live down here, and you don't have to worry about them. They mostly eat the moss and mold and stuff."

"Mostly," I said dubiously.

"Yeah. Shouldn't have to worry with a group this big, though. The bugs'll only eat dead stuff and the lizard rats don't go after groups bigger than two. Just don't go anywhere by yourself and you'll be fine."

"_Tell her about the pig-heads," _Zaalbar warbled. I was a little surprised to understand him. I didn't recall learning the language.

Quickly stuffing down the ensuing trickle of anxiety I spoke when it became clear Mission wasn't going to. "What pig-heads?" I asked her.

"Gamorreans," she answered reluctantly. "They like to live down here. Reminds them of home I guess. But you shouldn't worry about them, we're not going anywhere near their turf."

"If we're not going to encounter them why are you nervous?"

Mission shifted and avoided my gaze. Both of her lekku came up and curled around her neck, a sure sign that the subject of the Gamorreans made her nervous. "They come out here sometimes," she said. "They like to eat the lizard rats. If they find anybody they'll try and capture them to sell them as slaves."

That made sense. Gamorreans may appear to be a fat, sluggish race to most humanoids but I knew better. Their bulk was all muscle, not gut, and any one was a match for a Wookie in strength. They had thick hides, too; thick enough to withstand wounds that would kill most species. Zaalbar could handle one, but if it called for backup or there was more than one present they could very well capture both the girl and her furry friend. She was smart to be nervous, Mission was young, but already showed potential to be a beautiful woman. In addition to that her skin color was rare for a Twi'lek. As a slave she'd be worth quite a lot.

"My slugthrower can pierce pig-skin no problem," I told her. I hefted my slugthrower as I spoke, feeling a sudden maternal instinct towards the girl.

Warm brown eyes flashed in my direction, briefly showing a vulnerability that made her look very young for a moment. "Thanks," she mumbled, the word barely audible. I smiled knowing she couldn't see it and said nothing.

* * *

I hugged my wounded arm to my shoulder and fired around the corner, knowing that my cover was going to run out soon. I couldn't follow the Gamorreans any further; I'd have to go back.

I'd have to tell Mission I'd failed.

Locking my face into a grimace I stood up, turned tail, and ran. The Gamorreans didn't follow. Shame dogged my steps as surely as pain pulsed through the deep cut in my left arm.

We'd been ambushed by a fair sized group of Gamorreans just as we'd come to a bottle neck corridor in the sewers. They'd waited until we'd gotten jumped by a pack of rakghoul, attacking when we were well engaged with the mutants. Only Carth and I had been able to get free in time to fend them off. They'd tried to grab Mission, but we'd been able to kill a few of them. Where they hadn't succeeded with the young Twi'lek they had with Zaalbar. In a surprising show of tact Carth had kept the girl from running off after him, despite her literally kicking and screaming. Before anyone could do or say anything I'd dashed off after the retreating slave-takers.

I'd tracked them for nearly an hour before I'd caught up enough to engage them. I snuck up from behind and was able to shoot one of them in the back of the neck before they knew I was there. One of them got a lucky shot off and wounded me in the arm, forcing me to retreat to cover.

Now I was jogging back to Mission and the others without Zaalbar. I didn't understand why I felt so upset about it, Mission knew the sewers well enough to lead us to him with little trouble. And we would do better with a larger group to work with. If we played things right we'd have the big Wookie back within a day. I should be feeling confident, triumphant even, knowing that. Instead I only felt like I'd been punched in the stomach.

I didn't even get hallway back to where I'd left the others before I encountered them in the tunnels. One look at my wounded arm and the dejected look on my face and they knew what had happened.

"Don't worry Mission," Carth said. "We'll find out where they've taken Zaalbar." Mission said nothing, her lekku looped around her neck and quivering.

I was surprised to find that Carth actually looked concerned about the young Twi'lek. He'd shown such drawn in and erratic behavior since I'd known him that I was surprised he cared for anyone. Shortly after that my gaze flicked down to his left hand where the small silver ring was worn and felt a little guilty. He'd obviously cared for his wife since he still wore that ring. Perhaps he had had children with her and had cared for them as well. It would definitely explain his behavior towards Mission.

"C'm'er," Hestra said to me. She swung her pack off her shoulders and dug around inside, producing a first aid kit quickly. I smiled despite myself. That was Hestra all over, grabbing a first aid kit when everyone else was going for weapons. I was glad she had thought of it now, though.

I had to shrug off all the gear on my upper body, remove my armor, and hike up the sleeve of my tunic to expose the wound. Once I did Hestra cleaned it with a sterilized wipe pad, slapped a kolto patch over it, and popped a small bottle of antibiotics into my arm. Blaster wounds were usually pretty clean, but it was better not to take chances surrounded by the filth of the sewers.

Danika held herself away from Mission while Hestra patched me up, her face hard and unreadable. T3 sidled up next to the teenager and beeped and whooped softly. She seemed not to notice him and hugged herself quietly.

After I'd settled all my gear onto myself again there was an awkward moment of silence. None of us was quite sure what to do next. And then Danika broke the moment, her face softening and looking suddenly tired. "You know these tunnels better than anyone, Mission," she said. "Where would they take Zaalbar?"

Mission blinked at the question, but she was not one to let emotion cloud her thinking for long. She couldn't afford to living on her own in a place as rough as Lower City Taris. "The western tunnels, I think," she responded slowly. "I've never been down that way before, but I know that's where the Gamorreans get thicker than flies."

"Is there any way we can get in there fairly quietly?" Danika asked. "Some tunnel or other that isn't heavily guarded?"

The dejected look completely faded off Mission's face and turned into one of apprehension. "There is one," she said.

"Well?" Danika encouraged when it became obvious Mission didn't want to speak further.

The young Twi'lek girl came to a quick decision then and she grew determined. "Just follow me," she said. "I think I know a tunnel we can use." She strode off down an intersecting passageway quickly, giving the rest of us no time to argue.

* * *

By the time we finally found Zaalbar I was filthy, wounded, and very irritable. Gammoreans seemed to be popping out of the seams. There was at least one in every corridor, three in every room. I swore to myself that they were multiplying as we walked.

Carth avoided me, since I'd literally tried to snap his head off the last time he'd made a comment in my general direction. Mission had tried to buddy up to me at some point only to be strongly discouraged by Zaalbar. Even T3 and Hestra were keeping a respectful distance. Danika was the only one ignoring me, but then again she always did that when I got violently annoyed. That confidence wasn't a bluff either. She was one of the only beings I'd met who could kick my ass in a fight, no matter how angry I was.

Ultimately it had been Danika who had led us to him. She had taken up the lead when Mission faltered, the teenager unsure of the unfamiliar tunnels. I suspected it was her uncanny navigation skills kicking in again but said nothing to Carth or Mission. Hestra knew about it because the three of us had been on training drills on the _Endar Spire_.

Despite going around the 'back way' we encountered plenty of Gamorreans and had been forced to subdue them as quickly and quietly as possible. No easy feat considering how loudly they squealed when stuck with a vibroblade or shot. Beneath the anger I was amazed we'd gotten through.

As Danika approached the last door a twinge of instinct told me to stop. I did so, calling for the others to stop. Everyone looked at me curiously but I ignored them as I walked past to the door.

It felt as if my body were no longer my own and that a stranger lived within it instead. At the same time I felt as if I were larger than myself. I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there was some kind of danger behind the door. I didn't know who, or what exactly, it was but I was sure I didn't want to find out. "I think we should find a way around," I said quietly to the others, knowing that if I spoke to loud I would attract the wrong kind of attention.

I turned to see the reactions of the rest of the group and saw a wide variety. Danika was curious, but trusting. We'd been through enough shavit together to trust each other. Hestra had a closed look which she was very good at. It was why I never played pazzak against her.

Carth was gauging me. As a pilot he'd likely not seen too much ground fighting, but he'd been at it a while and he was smart, so I guessed he was trying to figure if I was legit or not. Mission just looked worried and tired. T3 swiveled his head and changed the color of his light, but other than that he did nothing.

"Okay," Danika said finally. She urged the others away from the door silently and took the lead again, her shoulders tightening slightly. I knew that she was refocusing her internal compass in order to get a fix again. I'd seen it enough times to know what it looked like.

I brought up the rear of the group and while I kept my ears and eyes open for trouble I wondered about what had just happened. The whole business disturbed me something awful, and yet at the same time...

It was like coming home.

"This is a manual lock," Mission said in awe. Her voice jerked me from my thoughts and back into reality. She studied the lock closely as she explained it to us. "There aint many left. I haven't seen one in years." She reached into her belt and took out a pair of tiny pieces of metal. She inserted them into the lock and with a little fiddling it popped open. I'd heard about the technique before but manual locks were so rustic I'd never seen one before, let alone anyone who actually knew how to crack it.

Once unlocked the door creaked open slowly, revealing a weary Wookie.

"Zaalbar!" Mission exclaimed as she ran to embrace her large, furry friend.

"_Mission_!" Zaalbar howled happily. He picked up the small teenager in a engulfing kind of hug and swung her around.

"Hey, could you guys be a little quieter?" I hissed. "You could alert the guards!"

There was a rumble as the other rusty door to the make-shift cell was hastily shoved open. Three massive Gamorreans wielding equally large hand axes stood in the entrance, their beady little eyes filled with malice. The one in the middle, whom was the biggest and I assumed was the leader, bore white skin instead of the typical green. Despite this his eyes were black.

"What make so much noise?" the white one yelled.

"Shavit!" I exclaimed. I lifted my slugthrower up to my shoulder and fired, missing Whitey's neck and nicking his armor instead.

Danika through her vibroblade to Zaalbar, who caught it without hesitation. Mission drew her blaster, hardly bothering to aim as she fired. Danika pulled out a stun baton I hadn't even realized she had and circled around to guard Zaalbar's flank. I didn't know why she didn't go for her blasters, but I was busy myself and unable to yell at her. Hestra must have gauged that the space was too small and crowded for she drew a shot vibroblade that I'd never seen before and stalked forward cautiously, waiting for the Gamorreans to charge. As I sidled to my right and tried to avoid getting shot I wondered where the frack everyone was getting mystery weapons from.

Carth backed up into the hallway we'd come from, using the wall as cover as he fired only one of his blasters, holding it with both hands for better accuracy.

Despite the barrage of blaster bolts and slugthrower rounds the Gamorreans charged, either trusting their thick hides to take care of them or not caring. Zaalbar blocked one of the green grunts overhead strike, shoving the hand axe aside and thrusting with his vibroblade. The other grunt charged for Hestra, swinging his axe to cut her in half through the waist. She showed a feat of agility I'd never thought her capable of and leaped straight over the strike, her feet landing square on the Gamorrean's shoulders. Using the momentum of her leap she shoved her short vibroblade through the gap in his helmet to his eye, following through until she heard the sound of the blade's vibrating edge skipping against the back of his helmet. She rode the massive corpse to the ground, pulled out her vibroblade, and advanced on Whitey, who'd gone straight for Danika.

Danika was dodging like an oiled eel, ducking past his guard when the opportunity presented itself and thrusting her stun baton into any fold of unarmored flesh she could find. Whitey bellowed with the pain every time, but it only seemed to anger him. Danika was tiring; I knew that she couldn't keep up her current pace for much longer.

Zaalbar exchanged titanic blows with the other grunt as only a Wookie and a Gamorrean can, their foot work splaying wide to brace themselves against the power of the other's blows. Then the grunt made a mistake, leaving a gaping hole in his guard that Zaalbar quickly took advantage of. He cleaved the giant green pig's head from his shoulders. Immediately, he turned his attention to Whitey.

Danika stumbled, abandoning her most recent rush. Zaalbar charged in, distracting Whitey from delivering a fatal blow. Hestra took advantage of the distraction and attacked from the white Gamorrean's other side, driving her vibroblade into his skull through his ear. The sound of bone rasping against the vibrating edge of the blade made me flinch and I knew that it would forever be burned into my memory.

Whitey dropped with a heavy thud and Danika sat with a similar thud before her legs gave out. She'd hardly had time to recover when Zaalbar turned to her and spoke. "_You have saved my life_, Human," he said. "_Not only my own but Mission's as well. For this I offer you a life debt_."

Mission's warm brown eyes grew wide. "Big Z, are you sure?" she asked.

"_The most certain that I have ever been in my life_," he answered.

Danika looked like she'd been slapped in the face, her look of surprise was so complete. The both of us had spent enough time on the Outer Rim to know what a Wookie life debt was and how significant it was to the species, despite how the slavers tried to belittle it. Speaking slowly as if wanting to pick her words carefully, she spoke. "I accept," she said.

"Well, then you're stuck with me, too. I go where Big Z goes," Mission added cheerfully. Her chest puffed out slightly and she stood straight. Her lekku had curled tightly around her neck for the battle but as she spoke unwound slightly so that a quarter of one of them hung off her shoulder.

"Welcome to our motley little gang, kiddo," I said to her with a smile.

"Hey, I'm not a kid!" she protested hotly.

"Get used to it, Mish," Danika said with a chuckle. "She calls everybody she likes that's younger than her kiddo. Besides, if she knows you don't like it she'll just do it more."

I flashed a mischievous grin. "She's got a point, _kiddo._"

Missions face quirked between an angry scowl and a blush, and her lekku shifted over her shoulders and collar. She wasn't quite sure how to place me and my companions yet.

"You've got good aim," Carth said. "I'm glad to have you and Zaalbar with us."

"Thanks," Mission said with a shy smile.

"We need t' git t' th' Vulk'r b'se," Hestra said. "But I w's thinkin' m'ybe we c'ld get s'me rest firs'."

"That sounds like a _wonderful _idea," I said.

Zaalbar warbled his agreement, as did T3 in strikingly similar tones. Carth suggested we get out of Gamorrean territory first and everyone agreed. We retraced the path we'd cleared on our way in and as we walked we once again took up an informal formation.

I drifted from my position in the middle of the group to the back in order to talk with Danika. "So," I said quietly enough so that my voice wouldn't travel far. "Why didn't you go for any of your blasters back there? I know the modifications you've made to your heavy rifle. You could have done some serious damage and never risked yourself like you did."

Danika turned her face to me, her eyes wide in her pale face. I knew that look and it sent violent shivers down my spine. "I don't know," she said, using the same volume I had. Her words were an echo of what I'd said back at the apartment in Upper Taris when she'd confronted me about my purchase of T3, and she knew it. She also knew that I would recognize instantly that despite this, the short sentence was true.

She didn't know.

What was wrong with us?

* * *

To Be Continued....

14


	6. Chapter 6

Gone For Good Chapter 6; Floodgate

**Chapter 6**

**Floodgate**

"You've got to be kidding me," I said to Mission.

"It's not a problem," she said. "I mean, you guys are soldiers, right? This should be easy for you."

I snorted sharply. "Mission, I think you're missing the point here. It's a _rancor._ Do you even know how big it is?"

"What difference does it make?" she puffed haughtily.

I made an exasperated noise in my throat. I wanted to hang the kid upside down by her feet. _Be patient,_ I thought. _She's a teenager._ "You haven't even seen this thing yourself, have you?"

"Everyone knows about it."

"Just because everyone knows there's a rancor guarding the Vulkar base doesn't mean it's true."

"I've seen claw marks on the walls around here, in some of the big tunnels. Nothing around here can make claw marks in solid durasteel."

"Except a rancor."

"Yeah."

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose with my forefinger and thumb. I had no idea how I was going to break the news that we had to get past a rancor in order to get to the magic back door of the Vulkar base to Danika, Carth, and Hestra.

Well, there was only one way to find out.

* * *

We sat in one of the few corpse free rooms that we'd left behind us. Hestra, Carth, Danika and I all sat in a circle, weapons close at hand. Even if we'd already cleared the area, anything was possible and none of us wanted to get caught with our pants down. Mission and Zaalbar weren't there. I'd convinced Mission that she didn't want to be present when I had to break the news to the others, and Zaalbar had wanted to see if his things were nearby anyway, so they'd gone off together to search the rooms and corridors surrounding his old cell.

After thinking about it extensively, I decided to be direct. The explanation flowed out of me in a rush, words tumbling into sentences and pooling into paragraphs.

When I finished, Danika smiled into the silence and shook her head.

"So..." Carth started.

"W're fracked," Hestra finished.

Danika burst into a brief fit of giggles that she tried to contain with a hand over her mouth.

"I have a stealth unit," I said, ignoring Danika for the moment. "I can sneak by it, if nothing else."

" 'N wha' g'd i' tha' goin' t' do fer th' rest o' us?" Hestra asked.

I shrugged. "It's a start."

"It's the only chance we have to get in undetected," Carth said. "We have to try it."

Danika had turned red in the face by then trying to contain her mirth. "What's so funny?" I asked, an edge to my tone. I didn't see anything amusing about dealing with a rancor.

"It's just-" Danika's words were cut off by a fit of bubbly laughs she had to suppress before going on. "You remember Rin?"

Of course I remembered Rin. Short, old, and crazy as a ronto, we'd met him when the _Urusai _had broken down once out in space, with no world's nearby enough for us to drift to and far off the well traveled hyperspace routes. He lived alone on an old freighter, bringing odd bits and ends from world to world.

"What about him?" I asked.

"His pet, the shaupaut? It's name was Rancor."

I stared at my former smuggling partner for a moment in confusion. And then memory sparked and I remembered the child-sized creature. Short legs, fat body, long arms, and ridiculously long, spindly digits, three fingers and a thumb. Curious, energetic, and a gentle, if frustrating, sense of humor, the little creature had been good entertainment for the short time we'd known it. What had possessed Rin to name it Rancor had mystified me until curiosity had driven me to ask him about it . He'd blinked his wide crazy eyes at me and then answered, as if it was the most reasonable thing in the galaxy, "well, I think Rancors are rather cuddly, don't you?"

The memory burst from me in a brief fit of laughter as I imagined Rin addressing a rancor in the same high pitched, nonsense talk he'd used to communicate with his shaupaut.

The universe, it seemed, was not without a sense of irony.

* * *

Zaalbar and Mission came back with a good haul, including the gear that had been taken from the young Wookie shortly after he'd been captured. They settled down on a couple of the few dry spots available. Mission seemed happy to be with her friend again, her sapphire eyes aglow whenever she looked at the big fur ball. Zaalbar busily went through all his things, making sure everything was whole and accounted for. I noticed with some interest that he had numerous spare parts and specialized tools used to work on droids and other machines.

"We should get some rest before we head out," Danika suggested. "We've been out and about for a while now."

"That sounds good to me!" Mission said. Zaalbar made a noise of agreement.

I wrinkled my nose in distaste for my surroundings, but a jaw-cracking yawn made the decision for me.

"I second that," Danika said after I'd yawned.

"We should keep watch," Carth said, a wary eye on the doorway that led to the hall outside.

Hestra rose from her seat and started for the door. "I'll w'ke ye wh'n i's tim', Carth," she said.

We were all tired, but it still took some time for all of us to settle down. Mission fell asleep first, and with the young Twi'lek curled into his side the Wookie was quick to follow. I lay on the floor with my head pillowed on my bag and set about concentrating on breathing deeply and relaxing every part of my body. Usually this allowed me to get to sleep quickly and well, and I'd almost gotten used to the smell, but that time it didn't work.

Ever since we'd boarded the _Endar Spire_ Danika and I were showing increasingly strange behavior. Neither of us had any explanation for it, and the injuries we'd suffered thus far were not severe enough to account for it. If we'd gotten brain damage bad enough to change our behavior that radically we'd be affected in so many other ways there would be no doubt of the cause.

My body gave a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold and I felt a fraction of what I had on the night I'd run away to the cantina in the Upper City. I felt as if I was being yanked in two different directions and that if I fought it too hard one way or the other I would break. It made me feel as fragile as the crystal figurines Danika and I had smuggled one time.

Flipping over on my side and curling into the fetal position, I stuffed down my fear and confusion as far as it would go. I hoped that if I gave it enough time that this mystery would unfold on its own and that my psyche would be whole at the end of it. I just wasn't sure how long I had to wait.

I wasn't sure how long I would last.

* * *

"_Do you ever wonder what's out there?" Danika asked. I didn't turn my head to look at her but instead continued to study the stars overhead._

"_They tell us all the time in class," I answered._

"_They only tell about the boring stuff, the trade routes and if they're with the Republic or not. What about everything they're not telling us?"_

_I shrugged, even though she couldn't see me. "Maybe they'll tell us about it when we're older."_

"_Maybe they won't."_

"_Is this about all that fighting on the Outer Rim?" I asked. "They said that wasn't important. Are you saying they lied?"_

"_No, but I think they left some stuff out."_

_It made sense. Adults left stuff out all the time, sometimes it was stupid stuff and sometimes it was really interesting. Usually it wasn't very important. I didn't see why this was any different, but I didn't say that to Danika. I could tell from the tone in her voice that she wasn't going to listen to me._

_Danika lay next to me quietly and didn't say anything for a long time. But the cool night air was thick with words, and I knew that she was still thinking about it._

_Eventually, we got up and went back to our beds._

* * *

Danika stayed awake long after Sabine's breathing had evened out and her face had relaxed. She'd been troubled more often than not these last few days, and Danika had a suspicion that it had more to do with some unknown factor than all the stressful situations that Taris had thrown at them lately. Since they had first met, Sabine and Danika had shared everything, even their pasts. So that the blond mechanic was hiding something now worried her. She hadn't outright asked Sabine about it yet, and she wouldn't for some time. Perhaps Sabine was simply trying to sort it out for herself. Whatever the reason, Danika had full confidence that her former smuggling partner would talk about it, eventually.

And to be honest with herself Danika couldn't blame Sabine for holding back. There was something strange happening to her as well. When she'd been fighting the Gamorreans she'd reached instinctively of the stun baton she'd hidden behind her belt as if it had always been there. It had never occurred to her to use her blasters, a lapse that was so out of character for her that it frightened her. If the others had not been able to get to her in time she would have been dead, and dead for a very stupid reason, too.

Before she could feel the twinge of fear that was surely coming Danika shrugged it off like water and did her best to forget that it had happened. Not permanently. Just until she had enough information to sort it out. For now she was trapped on an Outer Rim planet and a Sith blockade, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Hey, Carth," Danika said softly. "Are you still awake?"

"What's on your mind?" He asked.

"I noticed you wear a ring, are you married?" Carth stiffened slightly at the question, his face tightening. Danika expected him to say nothing further, and she wouldn't press him if he did, but after a heavy silence he spoke.

"I was," Carth said softly. The tone and the look on his face told Danika that whoever Carth's wife had been, she was dead now. She'd met men who still wore the rings when wives had left them, but she did not see that in the scruffy man before her now. Besides, the recent wars had left many dead behind, wives and husbands alike.

"I'm sorry," Danika said, and she was surprised to find those words the truth. She was a smuggler, the only people she worried about were herself, her crew, and their ship. Everything and everyone else came second, if they came at all. Carth was not her crew, and he certainly wasn't her ship, and yet she cared for him. It was because of this that she felt truly sorry for his loss and the pain it caused him.

Carth waved a hand in a loose gesture of dismissal. "It happened a long time ago."

Danika planned on saying nothing more but felt strangely like offering the Republic pilot an olive branch of sorts. "Time doesn't make pain like that go away. I never got over it when my father died, and he's been gone for fifteen years now."

Carth nodded, his eyes downcast and bright with the promise of tears. He wouldn't cry here, Danika knew. He'd cry in private with a large bottle of strong drink ready at hand. Her heart swelled painfully in her chest in sympathy, for she'd taken the same release herself too many times to count.

They said nothing for a long time, and eventually they both succumbed to the dark oblivion of sleep.

* * *

Carth woke me for third watch, saying little and not once meeting my eyes before he settled down to sleep again. I left him be; even a blind man could see that he had withdrawn into himself and didn't want to deal with anyone for a while.

I settled cross legged into the doorway, my presence there keeping the door open. Most of the front part of my body was out in the hall, allowing me to better hear or see any trouble before it got close and yet giving me the assurance of the room at my back, secure because Carth, Hestra, Danika, Mission, and Zaalbar slept within it. T3 sat next to me against the wall, so still he could have been one of the many slimed over ruins in the sewers. His head swiveled from time to time, his senses more acute than mine.

As I sat there I slipped into a place where I was my surroundings, all individual thought buried beneath the smooth pool of my mind. I'd found over the years that this was the best way to keep watch, to stay alert, awake, and remain focused. After the recent turbulence in the wake of the death of the _Endar Spire_ it was refreshing not to think for a while.

I didn't have a chrono to check how long I'd been on watch, but after what I felt was an appropriate amount of time I went back into the room and woke Danika with a touch on the shoulder and a few soft words. She stood up and went to take her place in the doorway, patting me on my shoulder as she passed.

I tried to settle down again, but sleep didn't come. There were no troubled thoughts to keep me awake this time, just the simple fact that my body felt it had had enough rest for now. I lay on the floor anyway and relaxed, content for the moment to simply exist.

By the time Danika woke Zaalbar for the next watch I knew I wasn't going back to sleep. I kept my breathing steady and my eyes closed so that Danika would think I was still asleep. I wanted the peaceful state I'd found to last a little while longer. She settled down in the same place she'd slept earlier and found sleep again fairly quickly. On impulse I opened my eyes and looked over, studying her sleep-smoothed face. She'd forgone makeup since we'd crashed as I'd done, but she was still beautiful. Her face was small and heart shaped, framed by hair so black it reflected blue in the light. Full lips and a delicate chin blended well with a slim nose. It was not as straight as it should have been. There had been a few times when she'd broken it far from the kind of medical attention that would have allowed it to heal straight and she'd never bothered to get it fixed.

I had never been considered delicate, though I'd been told I was pretty. I was taller than Danika by several inches, though our hips came to a similar height. My hourglass body was long, the legs short, and the hips and shoulders wide. My gold-blond hair had more of a curl than hers, and it was fine enough that it never stayed smooth-looking when I put it up.

I thought back over the way Danika had behaved during the last week or so and realized that she was attracted to Carth somewhat. I wondered how much it meant to her, and what, if anything, it meant to Carth. Danika had had her fair share of lovers over the years, but that's all they'd ever been. As far as I could tell, she'd never had a serious relationship in her entire life.

My attention shifted over to where Carth laid, his jacket acting as a blanket and his head cushioned on one arm. The jacket was worn but still in good repair. It must have been dyed; I knew of no animal that had a hide quite that shade of orange. Even so, it suited him. Like the jacket, he wore his years on his face, though not plainly. He was handsome, and that masked the inner turmoil most of the time.

I hadn't failed to notice the wedding ring on his finger. The band was simple and silver in color, its surfaced somewhat dull but still reflective enough. He must have rubbed it often, though I hadn't seen him doing so myself.

Whoever the wife was, I assumed she wasn't around anymore. He just had that broken look on his face, like he'd never gotten over it. I wondered how he'd deal with Danika, if they'd ever got serious.

Well, we'd have to get of Taris alive first. Anything else after that was just a pleasant fantasy at the moment.

* * *

The deeper parts of the sewers smelled worse than the ones closer to the surface. It got so bad that the nose plugs hardly helped anymore but I didn't dare remove them because I knew it would just be worse. The headache I'd had since descending from the Undercity intensified and became impossible to ignore. My eyes watered constantly now and I had to blink occasionally to clear them. I could feel the too-tight skin where the tear tracks were keenly.

Danika seemed almost happy about my misery, and I glared at her every time she grinned my way. Since Danika had virtually no sense of smell at all, she could afford to. Carth was somewhat sympathetic, saying he'd served with a few beings that had sensitive olfactory organs during his tours of duty. Hestra seemed indifferent, treating me the same she'd always had. Mission chatted me up whenever she felt the coast was relatively clear in an attempt at distraction, Zaalbar a silent tower of fur next to her. Occasionally T3 would beep a comment, though besides myself, Zaalbar was the only other one likely to understand Binary.

There came a point where most of the tunnels came to dead ends, though we never encountered any ourselves. Mission told us about them as she led us to a tunnel opening blocked by a force shield. She explained that the shield had been put in place by the Vulkars to keep the rancor from going too far.

"It's not like they need it for that anymore," Mission said. "I mean, it got too big a long time ago to get out of the room they've got it in. I don't know why they've left it up, but knowing them they probably just forgot it was there or something."

"If i's t' big t' get out've this tunnel," Hestra said. "Th'n we're goin' to h've some tr'ble."

"If it'll get me out of these stinking cess-pits, I'll take on a whole damn nest of gundarks," I growled. Danika smiled at the inflection in my voice caused by plugging up my nose. I glared at her sharply.

Hestra snorted. "Th' mood yer in, I d'nt doubt y' c'ld."

Mission shrugged and moved to hack open the shield. It didn't take her long.

Beyond the force shield, the tunnels and chambers of the sewers were fairly empty. Claw marks were evident on the entrances to the larger tunnels and in the upper reaches of the main tunnel, which Mission was leading us through. Underneath the perpetual stink, I began to detect another smell. It was thick, musky, and hot. I knew it was neither Gamorrean nor rakghoul, so I assumed it was the rancor. The smell made me nervous to be traveling in the large main tunnel, but I trusted Zaalbar and T3 to give an early warning for any danger. Zaalbar's superior hearing would catch anything trying to sneak up on us. T3's sensors were equal to, if not better, than the Wookie's.

After a time, Mission slowed down and became more careful in the route she took. We left the main tunnel and followed a smaller one that held very few rooms and branching tunnels. As we neared the end of one, the smell of rancor and the ambient stink of the sewers faded, suppressed by a rich, metallic aroma that could not be mistaken for anything other than blood.

The small tunnel terminated in a door just like any other door in the sewers. It was streaked unevenly with splatters of bright red, the pattern telling me that the blood had stained it as it was closing. The patterns of red on the walls to either side also told me that the victim had been on the other side of the door when he or she had been killed. My nerves buzzed as I realized that the scent of blood did not repulse me or make me wary of danger, as it should have. It made me exited and a little hungry.

"Hey," Danika said jovially, "anybody need a hand?" As soon as she said something, I noticed the dismembered arm lying close to the door.

"Oh gross, Dani," I said.

Unperturbed by our antics, Hestia walked over and did something to the arm. When she came back she was holding a gore spattered datapad. "I's coded," she said, and offered it to me. I wrinkled my nose and hugged my arms close to my body, refusing the thing. Hestra raised an eyebrow, but when I provided no further explanation she shrugged and handed the datapad to Danika.

I didn't refuse the datapad because I was disgusted by the gore. I'd seen worse, and the shock of it had long since worn off. I'd refused the datapad because seeing relatively fresh gore up close intensified the feelings I'd gotten just by smelling blood. Even as Danika wiped off the worst of the gore from the datapad's screen and began hacking past its security system I had to fight off the urge to turn my head and stare like a Corellian sand panther staring at a raw steak. My body began to shake with the effort.

Hestra noticed, and so did Carth and Zaalbar. Mission was distracted with the door's activation panel, which had been jammed shut.

"Sabine," Hestra said quietly, her pronunciation of my name perfect. "Sabine, l'k a' me."

I did as the veteran asked, meeting her clear, grass green eyes with my own. The strong personality in that gaze anchored me, not lessening the feeling at all, but giving me something to fight it with. She did not break the look before I did.

Danika either hadn't noticed the exchange, or she ignored it. I didn't look in her direction for long, but what I did see told me that she'd gotten past the datapad's code and was reading a file.

"It says here some of the Beks were trying to figure out how to get past the rancor. They developed a synthesized odor to attract it and it looks like they had a pretty good plan to use it, but somebody accidentally dropped one of the vials before they could make it work.

"What was the plan?" Carth asked.

"Someone with a stealth unit was supposed to sneak out to the rancor's nest and slip a grenade and a vial into the pile. The rancor would get excited by the smell and eat everything, including the grenade. They weren't sure if it would work."

I snorted, eying the gore on the walls speculatively. "I think it works."

"The spare vials are in the nest, most likely," Danika said. "The datapad says the guy who dropped one had the rest on him when he got eaten."

"It's a good plan," Carth said.

Danika shrugged. "Sabine's the one with the stealth unit."

Everyone except Danika exchanged Significant Glances.

"I'll do it," I said before anyone could suggest an alternative. I really didn't want to get up close and personal with a rancor's leftovers, but I also knew that I had the most experience with a stealth unit. I had the best chance of making it work.

"The door works again!" Mission said as she trotted up to us.

"Well," I sighed, "let's get this over with."

* * *

The Inside of the rancor's lair was a large, roughly rectangular room. A few lights were lit dimly overhead, though I could see banks of lights before and behind them. Perhaps the Vulkars lit them when they fed the thing.

It didn't matter. I'd always had excellent night vision, and the small amount of light was plenty for me. I could see the room in good detail, though not quite as well as if it had been brightly lit.

The rancor's 'nest' was a loose pile of rags, bones, and other less easily discernible body parts. The smell of rot dominated the smell of fresh blood and flesh, damping down the disturbing hunger I'd experienced earlier. I'd removed the wads of cloth in my nose, this section of the sewers smelling much better, relatively speaking, than the rest of the system.

I crept steadily towards the nest, being careful not to disturb the stealth unit's field. I had to be careful where I stepped; there was loose gravel, dust, and other bits I cared not to think about too hard all over. The stealth unit masked me from most of the light spectrum and completely blocked my smell, but only muffled the sounds I made. If I stepped on something crunchy there was a possibility that the noise made by it would be loud enough to alert the rancor. Since I couldn't move fast enough to get out of its way without disturbing the stealth field if the huge predator decided to come over and sniff around, I wanted to avoid that.

Grinning skulls and half-exposed skeletons gleamed in the dim light. I wrinkled my nose at the smell and stepped around the nest carefully until I found the freshest corpse of the bunch. I searched all its pockets carefully, more disgusted with the return of my hunger than the actual state of the body. The vials of synthesized odor were in one of the pouches that hung from the belt. There were three of them left.

I pulled out one of my grenades and a spare plasma cartridge for my rifle. I wired it to the grenade and then wired the grenade to respond to pressure. The whole package went into the hollowed out rib cage of the corpse that had had the vials. I emptied all of the vials onto the grenade and corpse in rapid succession, turning and scooting off as fast as I could towards the door behind which my friends waited.

The rancor sniffed and rumbled in interest. I didn't turn to look, but I could feel the vibrations in my feet and legs as he ambled over to the nest. The vibrations stopped only to be replaced by snuffling, snorting, and munching noises. I stopped trying to be subtle at that point and broke into a full run, the stealth field failing in a flicker of blue-white light around my body. The rancor was too absorbed in eating to notice.

I only made it three quarters of the way back to the door before the grenade exploded.

The plasma cartridge quadrupled the effect of the grenade, the force of it tearing apart the rancor from the inside. Bits flew past me as the concussion of the explosion knocked me off my feet. I tried to turn as I fell so that my more heavily armored back would come into contact with the ground, but it didn't work like I'd wanted it to. I ended up slamming into the floor on my left hip, followed by my left shoulder and the back of my head. My vision exploded into dots of bright light and the sound of the explosion multiplied in my ears, accompanied by screams and the sound of blaster fire, even the harsh clanging of swords and vibroblades meeting edge-to-edge. I tried to stumble to my feet and failed, seeing the door _whoosh_ open before I collapsed to the ground. My confused and bruised brain wondered for a moment if they were Republic soldiers or Mandalorians before I passed out.

* * *

To Be Continued...

13


	7. Chapter 7

Gone For Good Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**Almost**

Danika rushed through the door as soon as she heard the explosion. She couldn't explain how, but she knew that Sabine was in trouble. She could almost taste her fear and pain.

Hestra, Carth, Mission, Zaalbar, and T3 were right behind her, but she hardly noticed. All she could see was her partner sprawled on her side on the floor. Even as she ran to her, she saw Sabine try to stumble to her feet, and then fall back to the ground. She could see the blank, glazed look in her eyes just before they closed and the blond smuggler passed out.

Danika barely slowed down and slid to a halt before Sabine. She pressed the two forefingers of her right hand into Sabine's neck and breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the woman's pulse beat a strong, steady rhythm. She'd live.

"She's alive," Danika said when she remembered the presence of the others.

"We 'ave comp'ny," Hestra said tensely. Her long barreled rifle was in her hands and raised to point in front of her, too low to accurately shoot at anything in the distance but high enough so she wouldn't shoot Danika or Sabine by accident.

Carth readied his blaster pistols out and Zaalbar swung his bowcaster off his shoulders to heft it in his arms. T3 rolled up next to him and popped out the blaster attachment on top of his head. Danika looked for Mission, but the young Twi'lek was nowhere to be seen. The smuggler worried about her for a moment, and then shunted the girl to the back of her mind. Mission had been living on her own long enough to know how to take care of herself.

Danika swung her own long barreled rifle off her shoulders and looked for a target as she rose to one knee. She did not rise fully partly due to the fact that she did not want to become too tempting of a target, but mostly she just didn't want to move too far away from her unconscious partner.

Three Black Vulkars had come to investigate the explosion that had killed the rancor. They hadn't spotted Danika, Sabine and the others yet, but they would soon. For the moment they were occupied with gawking over the remains of the giant predator. The thing's neck had been blown apart; only the thick spine and a few of the muscles attached to it had kept the head linked to the shoulders at all. Part of his attention on the Vulkars, Carth eyed the carnage as well. "Grenades don't cause that much damage," Carth said.

Danika snorted. "It can when you wire it to a plasma cartridge. Sabine likes to do that when she has the resources and the time to rig it up."

"Oh," Carth said. His voice had a respectful tone to it, and Danika turned her head in time to catch the impressed look on her face. The smuggler smiled. As a mainstream pilot for the Republic fighting battles that almost never touched dirt-side, Carth had likely never seen anything quite that creative. If he'd served as an infantryman in the Mandalorian Wars he would have seen things that would have been much more impressive than that simple trick. A brief flash of memory sparked behind Danika's eyes, a young man with fire-red hair and piercingly clear blue eyes, dressed in the uniform of a Republic infantryman. She could see the battlefield behind him, the torn earth and fallen soldiers. As soon as it was there it was gone, so quick she could almost assume she'd imagined it.

Almost.

Hestra frowned at the Vulkars in the distance. "If I knew the' wern't wearin' en'rgy shields, I'd sey shoot 'em afore the' 'ave a chance to sp't us."

Danika shook her head to clear it, and then took her scope out of her pocket. It had been a new purchase just before the _Endar Spire_ had crashed, and in all the confusion afterward she had almost forgotten it. Thankful that she'd remembered it enough to slip it into a pocket before they'd left the Upper City, she clipped the scope to her rifle and lifted the weapon to her shoulder so she could see through it. With its help she could see the small group of Vulkars in clear detail, and she used the close view to search their utility belts for the little devices that produced energy shields. She couldn't see any, but she waited until she'd seen them from all sides, just to be sure. If they had energy shields and survived the first round of shots, there was a good chance they would head back to the small entryway on the other side of the room and activate an alarm. Danika knew they couldn't afford to fight through the entire gang in one go, not if they wanted to get the swoop accelerator and get out in one piece.

"They're clean," Danika said.

"Good," Hestra replied. She lifted her long barreled rifle until it rested against her shoulder, dipping her head to sight along the barrel. The end of the weapon wavered a little as she took careful aim, and then fired. Danika followed suit, taking enough time to make sure she got the Vulkar she was aiming for in the head. The first two were felled before they knew what was happening. Only the last one saw his buddies fall, but Hestra picked him off as he ducked for cover. He was dead before he hit the floor.

"_We should get out of the open,"_ Zaalbar said. T3 whistled in agreement.

"Right," Danika said. "Would you help me with Sabine, Zaalbar?" The Wookie rumbled his assent as he walked over. Danika had thought to carry Sabine's shoulders while Zaalbar carried her legs, but the Wookie gently picked up the blond woman as if she weighed no more than his bowcaster. She raised her eyebrows and blinked rapidly in her surprise.

"_We need to go,"_ Zaalbar said when Danika made no move to get up.

"Okay," Danika said. "Sure." She got to her feet and swung her rifle onto her shoulder in one smooth motion.

"Ya didn' underst'nd wha' he sa', did ya?" Hestra asked Carth. The Republic war hero had a slightly confused look on his face. Danika and Zaalbar turned around to see his response.

"You did?" He asked Hestra.

The old veteran shrugged. "I wan't b'rn a soldier," she said.

Carth nodded. "Fair enough," he responded. Sabine stirred and moaned in Zaalbar's arms and Carth looked at her with a frown. "Are we really going to go into the Vulkar base with her like that?" he asked.

Danika shrugged. "Someone can stay with her in an empty room," she said. "But we can't afford to wait until the Vulkars start to wonder what happened to their door guards, and we can't leave her out in the open."

"Alright," Carth said. He slipped out one of his blasters and gestured with his other hand. "After you," he said. Danika flashed him a brief grin, white teeth flashing under sparkling midnight blue eyes. She turned and walked toward the narrow hallway the Vulkar lookouts had come from. She didn't look back, trusting the others to follow. They did, Zaalbar falling in behind her and Carth and Hestra following to cover the rear.

They approached the small narrow hall that held the door to the Vulkar base at the end of it cautiously, but there was no one there. The dirty walls had surprisingly little in the way of graffiti. The only other things in the hall were a few crates and storage lockers. Danika eyed them speculatively, wondering if the extra weight would be worth it or not. She quickly came to the conclusion that it probably wasn't, and that there wasn't any time for it besides. They had to get in, get the swoop accelerator, and get out.

"Hey guys!" Mission said cheerfully as she shimmered into view. "I got the door open." The girl's sudden appearance gave everyone a start. Danika recovered first.

"Thanks, Mission," Danika said. "Would you mind doing some recon before we go inside? I want to find a quiet room where we can try to wake up Sabine. If you can locate the accelerator while you're at it I would really appreciate it."

"No problem," Mission said. She reached down to her belt, pressed something, and the stealth generator flared to life in a brief shimmer of blue-white sparks before the blue Twi'lek disappeared from view. Moments later the door _whooshed _open, giving a glimpse of the hallway beyond before closing again. Hestra had her rifle trained on the door the whole time, her torso turned slightly sideways towards the door and her feet firmly planted. Carth stood in a similar stance, both his blasters out and ready. Danika had one hand on her vibroblade, several inches of hard-looking metal showing above the sheath.

They waited there for what felt like a long time.

* * *

Mission slipped silently through the corridors like a ghost, her heart pounding out a mixture of fear and excitement in her chest. This was big, bigger than anything she'd ever been a part of before. She'd explored the Undercity with Zaalbar, yes. She'd wandered around the Lower City into places that other beings didn't dare go. But this was different. She was slinking around the Black Vulkar base. If she got caught, though there was no doubt in her mind that she wouldn't, all sorts of unpleasant things would happen. Brejik had never liked her, and he was just a bit crazy to boot. She knew he'd hurt her just for that, but she was like a little sister to the Hidden Beks, and he'd hurt her to hurt them too. That was if she as lucky enough to live that long. Most of the Vulkars were trigger happy, some more than others. If she was found, they'd likely shoot first and ask questions later.

So all in all, this was the most dangerous thing Mission had ever done, and it made her head tails twitch to think about just how much trouble she was in. At least she had a group of soldiers to back her up if things really went wrong. Not like she trusted them all that much; she hadn't trusted anyone new since Brejik had left the Beks, but Zaalbar was with them and he'd come after her. She was pretty sure that if he went after her, they'd follow.

It quickly became apparent that the area that Mission was exploring was not the only level to the Vulkar base, nor was it the level that the swoop accelerator was on. A quick visit to one of the handy hall terminals showed that the other level was the garage, and she would have explored that too except for the gun turrets guarding the elevator. Her stealth unit was good, but even with the upgrades Zaalbar had added she wasn't sure if it was good enough to hide her from gun turrets. She decided to let Danika, Carth, and Hestra deal with that problem. She had found a nice quiet room for Sabine already, so there really wasn't any reason to stay.

Before she signed off the terminal, Mission ran a program that would mimic one of the myriad malfunctions older systems were susceptible to and disable the security cameras for five minutes. She put a timer on it so it wouldn't activate until she got back to Danika and the others. She left the terminal just as she'd left it and slunk back the way she'd come, confident that she was in the free and clear. Things couldn't have gone smoother than if she'd planned them.

And then Kreedan Fan showed up.

* * *

Kreedan was a very strange being. He wasn't from any species Mission could readily recognize, and she had never met anyone quite like him before or since. He was creepy, and her brother Griff had always told her that if she ever met him out on the street to immediately go the other way. That was saying something. Her brother had rarely warned her away from anyone.

Her heart sped up a couple notches and she slowed her pace, glancing down at the filthy floor to make sure that she wasn't leaving any visible tracks. She sidled off to the opposite side of the hallway and stood stock still. She didn't twitch or sniff or even breathe very deeply. She wasn't exactly sure how good Kreedan's senses were, and she definitely didn't want to find out the hard way.

The big, pale humanoid walked casually down the hall, and as he passed Mission's hiding place she thought she'd get away for a moment. But he paused, the thick muscles in his back and neck visibly tightening under his shirt. Mission tensed as well and held her breath. Kreedan turned and sniffed, his large gold eyes searching the hall. His pupils slitted as he looked as if to help him focus.

Mission turned and very, very carefully started sliding down the hall in the opposite direction, barely daring to breathe. Heavy footsteps sounded behind her, and when she turned her head to look over her shoulder she saw Kreedan following her.

_Frack,_ she thought. It was only then that she noticed that the whites of Kreedan's eyes were really black. She kept going, hoping that she'd be able to sneak all the way back to Zaalbar, Danika, Hestra, and Carth. If she could just get that far, she knew that she'd be all right.

"I smell you, little Twi'lek," Kreedan growled.

A jolt of fear and surprise raced up Mission's spine and she bit her teeth down on a flood of profanity that would make a Black Sun enforcer go pale. Stealth was out now. Fighting was out as well, he was probably faster and stronger than she was, and he outweighed her by at least one hundred pounds. The only thing she had left now was running and hiding if she couldn't get back to the others in time. She sprinted down the hallway, running as quietly as she could. Mission knew she was fast, she'd outrun many humanoids with longer legs that hers.

Kreedan was faster.

Mission ducked and weaved, quickly discovering that while Kreedan was faster than her in a straight run he couldn't turn very fast. She used that to her advantage, briefly losing him somewhere in the series of hallways and rooms that made up the Vulkars sleeping quarters. She had to duck into a small closet to avoid being found again, and she knew then that she wasn't going to be able to make it back to the others. She pulled out her comlink and fiddled with it by touch, unable to see it through the stealth field. She cut off the sound from incoming transmissions and amped up its ability to detect sound, replacing it on her belt when she was done. It was the only way she could call for help. She knew that any sound she made above the sound of her breathing could give her away.

The next thing Mission did was to jam the door controls as best she could. When she was done she settled into the back of the small closet, her blaster pistol in one hand, stun baton in the other. After that all she could do was wait and hope that someone on the other end of the comlink got her call for help.

* * *

I woke up mostly because of the smell. It was thick and musky and unmistakably familiar. It covered a different smell that was much less pleasant but sadly was also familiar. There was fur against my face, and I could feel strong, thick arms supporting me by my shoulders and knees. I screwed up my face and opened my eyes in order to see who it was.

For a moment everything was blurry and came in pairs, but eventually my eyes adjusted and things came into focus. I was looking up at a hairy brown and black chest. Nearly buried in all the fur were two leather straps, relatively free of decoration. They came over wide, thick shoulders on top of which was an oblong head, the shape nearly obliterated underneath a mass of dirty fur. I could just see a pair of jet-black eyes and a wet black nose, both miraculously free of fur. _Wookie,_ I thought. I knew I should know his name, but it wouldn't come. He rumbled something and whined, my confused brain refusing to translate the sentence properly. Despite that I picked up a distinct tone of worry.

"I don't know, Zaalbar. I can hear breathing, but she's not responding to anything I say." The voice was strong and steady, though distinctly female. I tried to turn my head slowly, but it lolled bonelessly to one side instead. A throb of white-hot pain flared through my head, so intense that it flared in a blotch of red-white spots across my vision. When it cleared I saw a shorter than average human woman with a heart-shaped face, blue-black hair, and clear eyes the color of a blue sky at night. Her delicate eyebrows were furrowed in worry and she was looking at the space above me that contained the Wookie's head. Like him, she seemed terribly familiar even though I couldn't remember her name.

The Wookie answered the black-haired woman in a half whine, half growl.

" 'E's righ'," another woman said. "Th' girl wouldn' c'll us ov'r th' comlink's like thi' i' sh' c'ld git back on 'er own." My head rolled over in her direction and I saw another human female, this one of average height with peppered gray and brown hair and moss green eyes. Her accent was like nothing I'd ever heard before; barely understandable at the best of times and strangely clear on particular words.

There was a human male there as well, standing a few inches taller than the second woman. He ran his hands through his auburn hair, two locks of it springing back into place in front of his forehead. His brow was wrinkled with worry, and it looked like a comfortable expression for him. There were laugh lines around his brown eyes, so perhaps this had not always been so. "I don't like going in blind," he said. Almost as an afterthought he added, "We can't leave her in there if she's in trouble."

Everyone agreed with various noises, and as they argued about how to go in I wondered who they were talking about.

"What are we going to do about Sabine?" the man asked. _Sabine. That's my name,_ _isn't it?_ I thought.

"We have to take her with us," the black-haired woman said. "We'll leave her with someone as soon as we can find a room. Until then Zaalbar has to stay behind the rest of us." The Wookie made a sound like a rumbling whine, something that was half protest, half agreement. The man didn't like that idea, but he also wasn't arguing against it. He just sighed and adjusted his stance, loosening his blaster pistols in their holsters. The older woman gave a short, sharp nod and said nothing.

The black-haired woman flashed a grin, more a show of teeth than a smile, and drew her vibroblade. The sight of it made something deep in me stir. It pushed beneath the surface, demanded attention, but no matter how I tried I couldn't get to it. The woman turned to open the door, her whole being radiating a strength and confidence that was almost physical. Seeing her like that was so familiar that I was almost able to grasp the meaning behind the fog in my mind.

Almost.

* * *

Danika didn't like dragging an injured Sabine into the middle of a fight any more than Carth did, but they really didn't have any choice. They couldn't very well leave her where she had been, out in the open and hanging limp in Zaalbar's arms. Her eyes had been open and she had moved her head, so she must have been aware of things on some level, but the look of recognition in her eyes as she watched them all was sluggish and barely there, the eyes themselves glazed over, the pupils different sizes. She'd be out of commission for a while, Danika knew. And the timing couldn't have been worse. They needed every gun hand they had.

Refocusing on the hallway in front of her, Danika shook her head and berated herself silently. _Keep your head dirtside where it belongs, _she told herself.

Danika didn't like just walking into the Vulkar base, but she did it anyway. She held her blaster out in the ready position and advanced into the hallway, her head turning to inspect corners and alcoves as she passed. She let her feet work independent of her conscious thought, letting her mysterious ability guide her where she needed to go.

Carth followed behind and slightly to the left of Danika. Zaalbar followed behind him, Sabine carefully cradled in his shaggy arms. Hestra brought up the rear, her long barreled blaster rifle ready.

After several turns through the maze of hallways, Danika stopped before an unlocked door. She opened it without hesitation, instinctively knowing that it was the room she needed. Carth nearly had a heart attack behind her. Here they were storming into enemy territory and she was opening doors without seeming to consider that there might be an armed being on the other side. He prepared for the worst in the little time he had, but it was in vain. The room beyond was empty.

"Are you trying to kill me?" he demanded of Danika in a shrill whisper.

"What?" she asked, blinking at him in confusion.

"There could have been Vulkars behind that door!" he hissed.

"No, there couldn't. It was empty."

"How do you know?"

Danika shrugged. "Gut instinct? I never really put a name to it. But whatever you want to call it, it hasn't failed me yet." Without further discussion, the short smuggler turned and walked into the room, leaving Carth standing just outside the door red faced and ready to strangle her.

"_Are they always like this?"_ Zaalbar asked Hestra.

The veteran chuckled, her mouth curved in a half-smile. " 'Fraid so," she told the Wookie, deliberately answering him in basic.

Carth turned to glare at the two of him, but was caught up short by the expression on Zaalbar's face. He'd never realized that a face covered in that much fur could look puzzled and slightly bewildered at the same time.

"This will work," Danika said as she came back to the door. "Who wants to stay with Sabine while we go find Mission?"

Hestra lifted her arm. "I'll vol'nteer," she said.

"_Thank you,"_ Zaalbar said, his furry body visibly relaxing.

Hestra nodded in acceptance, her expression somber. She helped Danika get Sabine comfortable before settling on a metal crate, her short barreled rifle slung loosely across her legs. She said nothing, letting Danika fuss over her injured friend. She understood the younger woman's hesitation in leaving her injured friend, despite her outward firmness about the decision earlier.

At length Danika decided she'd delayed long enough and left the room. She tried to get her bearings in the hallway, but the sure feeling that had led her to the empty room was absent now. She'd have to find the teenage Twi'lek through more conventional means.

"Can you sniff out Mission?" Danika asked Zaalbar.

The young Wookie wrinkled his nose at the filthy corridor. _"It smells... different in here. I'm not sure if I can."_

Carth opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a low, rumbling growl from Zaalbar. Danika stiffened at the sound and loosened her vibroblade in its sheath. The fine hair on the back of her arms and neck stood on end. She'd never heard such an angry, guttural sound come out of a being's vocal cords before. "Zaalbar," she said slowly. "What's wrong?"

"_I hear Kreedan,"_ he growled, the words barely discernible. He rushed headlong down the hallway, his bowcaster clenched tightly in his powerful claws.

Danika rushed after the enraged Wookie without a second thought. Carth made a strangled noise in his throat as he freed his blasters from their holsters yet again. He scrambled after Zaalbar and Danika, absolutely certain that they were going to run into a group of Vulkars at any moment.

T3 watched the pilot run down the corner and uttered a combination of beeps and short whistles.

"Migh' as will c'me in here, Bolts," Hestra said to the droid. "They'll be a' i' fer a while." T3's head swiveled to the old veteran and made a low _whoo_ sound.

"Nah," Hestra replied. "Don't ya worry abou' i'. They'll be fine."

* * *

To Be Continued. . .

9


	8. Chapter 8

Gone For Good Chapter 8; Fracture

**Chapter 8**

**Fracture**

He was playing with her now, Mission knew.

Kreedan had been circling for a while now, cat-calling up and down the corridor. She didn't know why no one had come to investigate the noise, and she wondered if she wanted someone to come along or not. Another Vulkar might cause Kreedan to stop toying with her, or he might try to shove off the other Vulkar to keep her to himself. She didn't think he was the type to let someone interrupt his fun, but she hoped that was the case anyway. Her stomach clenched into a tight cold ball and her throat constricted. Like lightning, a thought flicked quickly through her panicked mind. Had her message gotten out? Did Big Z know she was in trouble?

"Come out little blue-tails," Kreedan growled. "I'm not going to hurt you." A throaty growling chuckle froze the blood in Mission's body and sent little thrills of phantom pain up her spine. Even if the message had gotten through to Big Z, she was afraid it might already be too late.

* * *

Danika ran after Zaalbar, her vibroblade balanced easily in one hand. The young Wookie was so enraged, he wasn't even growling anymore. She'd never seen a Wookie in battle before, and by what she saw of Zaalbar at that moment, she sincerely hoped she'd never be on the wrong end of one.

Carth followed behind Danika, realizing for the first time how is hero status had affected his physique. They had not been running for very long, but he was already falling behind the dark-haired smuggler. He silently vowed that if he made it off Taris alive, he'd start exorcising again.

Zaalbar rounded the next corner in the hallway, and to Danika following behind it sounded as if there was a sudden explosion of noise. Every hair on her body straightened and her adrenalin glands jumped into double-time. She fervently hoped that none of the other Vulkars in the base had heard that.

For all his cruelty, Kreedan had never felt nor confronted that level of rage in his entire life. So the moment he heard Zaalbar's roar, his body reacted for him, jumping into a startled run down the opposite end of the corridor from the horrible sound.

He didn't run fast enough.

* * *

_I was running, stretching my legs to the limit of their range, feeling the muscles work as they propelled me through a field of tall, pale grass. The air was fresh and clean, still crisp with winter cold. I could hear the grass rustle in the wind, the call of distant birds. The sky was bright and clear, soft clouds meandering over its expanse. _

_It wasn't real, I knew that. My reality was a place of blood and dirt, blaster shots and the stinging swings of vibroblades. It was not this empty, peaceful place, no matter how much I wanted it to be._

_I felt a thrill of primal terror, muffled as if it had come to me from a long distance. It wasn't mine, but I knew it was real. _

"_I'm coming," I whispered over the distance. _

_The world around me broke apart into millions of glittering lights as I fought my way back to conscious thought._

* * *

"_I'm coming."_

Through the fog of the neural inhibitor and the drugs, it resounded clearly in the Force. It was a beacon of utter calm and confidence. Whether it was intended for her or not, Bastila neither knew nor cared. As she sat slumped and barely aware in her cage, she smiled.

Sabine was coming.

* * *

"_I'm coming."_

A wave of utter calm washed over Danika, even as she watched Zaalbar tear into Kreedan with his vibroblade. She didn't know how she knew, or how it was even possible, but she the voice belonged to Sabine. The blond woman wouldn't be completely out of the fight after all.

Kreedan died quickly, if not painlessly, under Zaalbar's blade. Danika left him to it. "Mission?" she called gently. "Mission, you can come out now, it's all right."

A narrow door opened after a few moments, revealing a wide-eyed and pale Mission, her head tails curled protectively around her neck. "Is he gone?" she asked. For that one moment, she looked every inch of her fourteen years.

At the sound of the young Twi'lek's voice, Zaalbar came running, sweeping her up in a tight hug. Warbling, high pitched calls of concern came out muffled into Mission's shoulder.

"Big Z, I can't breathe!" Mission wheezed. Her Wookie friend quickly put her down and checked her all over, sniffing at her loudly between whines. She protested half-heartedly until he was satisfied. Carth and Danika stood back and kept quiet, letting the friends have their moment.

"Hey, uh, thanks for rescuing me and everything," Mission said to Danika and Carth. Her cheeks flushed light purple, and for the first time since Danika had met her the young Twi'lek looked embarrassed.

Danika smiled warmly, "Anytime, Mish."

"We should get moving," Carth said. "Did you find the accelerator?"

"It's not on this floor," Mission said. "I would have checked the other floor, but the elevator is guarded by gun turrets."

"How many grenades do you have?" Danika asked Carth.

He blinked in shock. "I don't carry grenades," he answered.

"Damn," Danika said.

"_I have some_," Zaalbar said.

"Great!" Danika said. "I'll need three." She accepted them gratefully and pulled out one of her spare plasma cartridges.

"What are you doing?" Carth asked.

"Borrowing a trick from Sabine," she answered.

Danika knew that Carth was recalling the damage done to the rancor's neck from the way his face paled and his eyes widened. "Uh, are you...?"

"Wiring three grenades to a plasma cartridge? Yup."

"Hey, I don't want to spoil the mood here or anything, but won't that blow up the elevator?" Mission asked.

Danika stopped fiddling with the grenades and blinked several times at the teenager. Suddenly her ebony brows came down in a sharp V. "Shavit!" She growled. "You're right."

Carth let out a quiet sigh, his whole body relaxing. "So we're back to square one, then," he said.

The four companions gave each other a significant look. "I got nothing," Mission said finally, just to break the silence.

* * *

The dream faded as I struggled into consciousness. It slipped from my memory like water off a jacket, but before it fully disappeared I knew that it wasn't gone for good.

"Oww," I moaned. The back of my head throbbed in pain, strobing through my waking thoughts like a light in the darkness.

"Ya took a g'd knock," Hestra said. "Ya migh' wan' t' stay down fer a bit."

"Where'd the others go?" I asked. I remembered telling the others about the rancor, remembered the trek down the tunnels, but things got hazy after that. I tried to get a look around, but I couldn't see much. The light in the room was low, but it hurt. What I could see told me that the room Hestra and I were in was more clean than the sewers had been. From that I reasoned that we must have made it passed the rancor somehow and gotten into the Vulkar base. So why did my head feel like I'd just been run over by a ronto?

Hestra cocked her head at me, a strange look on her face. She got up from the crate she was sitting on and walked over the few feet that separated us. She slung her rifle over her shoulder before crouching in front of me and taking my face gently in her hands. She tilted my head up towards the weak light source, causing me to flinch and clench my eyes shut. I felt fingers probing my eyelid and made an argumentative noise with my throat. "Shh, I am not trying to hurt you. I just want to see what's wrong with your eyes," Hestra said, her perfect speech startling me into letting her open one of my eyes. Even so, I kept the other one tightly shut.

Hestra said nothing for longer than I was comfortable with, so I struggled to focus my single open eye on the veteran's face. Whatever I did worked and it seemed to me that the light level adjusted itself to a more comfortable level. Hestra's face came into clear view, here grass green eyes wide. "What's wrong?" I asked. I opened my other eye cautiously to get a better look.

"You're not human," she whispered.

A cold thrill ran up and down my spine. My mind flashed back to the night I'd gone to the cantina alone and the morning after. An image jolted across my inner eye, a smell, a brief stint of sound. The light level in the room rose again and everything became sharper. Hestra let go of my head and leaned back, a look of utter shock on her face. "What are you?" she asked.

"Changeling," I answered. The word came from my mouth as it had the morning after the cantina; without thought or reason. I'd had a boring, almost normal childhood after all, and a fairly normal adulthood to boot. There should not be any reason for me to be spouting words that had nothing to do with me.

Well, except for the fact that I seemed to have a split personality disorder.

My head continued to throb, and though I wanted to chase myriad thoughts I stilled my mind for the moment. I was sitting in the middle of enemy territory with a swoop accelerator to find, a race to win, and a Jedi Princess in distress to rescue. Thinking circles around myself could wait until I'd gotten off Taris alive and intact. Almost as an afterthought, part of my mind focused on my eyes and the room went back to normal.

Hestra sighed and shook her head. "Your eyes were slitted a moment ago," she said. "Like a cat's."

I'd almost gotten my head back in the game, but that comment threw me off again. "Wait, what?" I asked. The moment I finished speaking I had the answer. Before I'd been knocked unconscious I must have been in a room with very little light, and sometime between then and waking up I must have changed my eyes to accommodate to the situation. The reason most feline eyes had slit pupils was that the configuration allowed the eye itself to catch more light. That realization brought on a string of others.

"I can shape-shift," I said, my voice ringing stunned in my ears.

"That explains the Trandoshan and the Sith patrol," Hestra said. She sighed again. She studied me then, her eyes roaming over my face as if memorizing it. "I'd have sworn you were human."

"I would too," I said. "My parents were human, I remember that."

"Don' w'rry. I won' tell th' others." Hestra's voice was different now. Her clear, Corusanti speech was gone and the thick, almost unidentifiable accent was back.

"Why do you do that?" I asked.

"D' wha'?" Hestra knew perfectly well what, but she was keeping a straight face. Just from that I knew that she'd played more than her fair share of pazzak.

"Why do you change your accent like that?" I asked again.

Moss green eyes darkened and facial muscles relaxed. Hestra smiled at me, her whole expression sad. "Old habits die hard," she said clearly.

I looked down at my hands and focused slightly, the skin turned dark, almost black. "Yeah, I know what you mean," I said quietly. I flexed my hands and the skin lightened again. Furling one finger at a time, I was acutely aware of the muscles that pulled them into place. I knew I could change them into almost anything I wanted.

Silver gray eyes drew down as Hestra stood up and swung her rifle off her shoulder. "Cut that out," she said. "Now git yerself t'gether an' le's go find th' others."

"Right." I stood up carefully, taking stock of the bruises I knew were brewing under my armor. If I really concentrated, I knew I could calculate the exact damage done to my soft tissue and how long it would take me to heal. I set that information aside for the moment and did a quick check of my equipment. I swung my blaster rifle off my shoulder and hefted it in my arms, giving brief thought to how it must have been awkward to carry me with the thing digging into someone's chest or shoulder.

Hestra said nothing as she walked out the door, T3 quickly rolling out of her way. Respecting the lack of chatter, I followed. "Come on T3," I said as I passed. "Let's go fish Danika out of her latest predicament."

Hestra pulled out her comlink as we walked and activated it. "Th' pup's aw'ke," she said. "Where're y'all?"

"Three corridors down and to the left," Danika answered.

I was about to ask for the comlink when Hestra handed it to me. I cocked an eyebrow at her, but instead of answering she gave me a half-smile. Instead of perusing it further, I spoke into the comlink. "I don't know if anyone noticed, but isn't this place pretty empty for the base of the second largest swoop gang in the Lower City?" I asked.

"I don't know," Danika replied. Despite the seriousness of the situation I could hear the smile in her voice. "I keep expecting to find a group of them around every corner."

"Do me a favor and find a wall terminal," I said. "The security feeds should tell us where everybody is."

"Hurry up, then. I don't like staying in one place for long."

* * *

There were no functional cameras in the Vulkar's spice den. This lack wasn't due to poor maintenance or simple systems failure, Canderous knew. After all, he'd been the one to take them out.

Canderous had never been particularly skilled with machinery, but he did know his way around them. As a warrior on the front lines of battle, he'd learned quickly that it was to his benefit to know how to sabotage the enemy. He smiled as he remembered the glory of those days. The rich scent of blood and hot metal, the faces of his enemies as they fell before him; all of it played briefly over his mind's eye as he lounged in his chair. Vulkars of all sizes and species lay sprawled around him, deeply under the influence of spiked stims and altered spice. It had taken him some time to cook all of it and then to replace the 'clean' supplies in the Vulkar's spice den.

It had been worth the effort.

Canderous leaned back the chair and swung his legs onto the counter of the table before him, pulling a cigarra from the pouch and putting it to his mouth. As he lit it, his eyes turned to the terminal by the wall. He couldn't see the details of the picture on the screen from his seat, but he could see a dirtied spot of gold, and that was enough for him.

She was here. The woman he'd seen down in the Undercity and reluctantly left to its depths was here, inside the Vulkar base. He assumed she was looking for the swoop accelerator that the Vulkars had stolen from the Beks, since their little Twi'lek and her Wookie were there as well. That was of no concern to him, however. The blond woman was all he cared about.

The big Mandalorian scratched his beard and sighed. She couldn't possibly be his Sandra. She'd died on the surface of a distant world many years ago right in front of his eyes. He couldn't deny the resemblance; the two women were like sisters. And they used fighting styles so similar they could have learned them from the same teacher.

No, they were identical, right down to the faint scar over her left eye. But his Sandra had always looked at him with her eyes in such a way that made him think of the soft quiet in his basilisk droid just before it plunged down into the atmosphere of a planet. It was that same sense of perfect calm; that feeling that he was right where he was supposed to be. This stranger held no hint of recognition in her eyes for him, though there had been an attraction. He'd heard of warriors taking sufficient wounds to lose their memories, and after all Sandra's body had never been found. It had given him hope in the beginning, but after years of neither hearing nor seeing her, he'd given her up for dead. Mandalorians mourned the death of their loved ones on the battlefield, not in the bottom of a bottle.

So even though Canderous didn't know what to do with this strange woman who looked and acted so like his Sandra and yet so different, he knew he couldn't leave her to the tender mercies of the Vulkars. He'd do everything he could to smooth her way. Time would reveal her true identity, and if he lacked anything, it certainly wasn't time. He'd wanted to get off Taris before the shavit hit the fan anyway.

* * *

After checking the security feeds, I came to the conclusion that the Vulkars were either hiding in the bathrooms, which had no cameras, or they were all locked up tight in the one room in which the cameras weren't working. I didn't like not knowing for certain, but we were running low on time. The big race was coming up soon and I wanted to become familiar with the track before I had to race my heats. I'd raced swoops before. Usually only when Danika and I had been desperate, but I had enough experience to know that familiarity with the track gave an undeniable edge. Considering the fact that whole gangs were based around the event on this particular world, I was willing to bet that the opponents had an intimate knowledge of the track. I knew that I'd need all the help I could get.

I was looking through the rest of the system the terminal was hooked up to carefully when I noticed something odd. The turrets guarding the garage floor elevator that Mission had noticed earlier had been disabled. It was a something you wouldn't have noticed on a quick sweep through the system, and I guessed that was why Mission hadn't noticed.

"Is something wrong?" Danika asked. Positioned to my right, rifle at the ready for anyone or anything coming down the corridor, she had a good angle to see my face. I'd been keeping my expression neutral, but Danika had spent enough time with me to know better.

"The turrets have been disabled," I answered. "It looks like a power malfunction from here, so somebody probably took a servodriver to the hardware, instead of hacking their programming."

"They'd have to be recognized as friendly by the turrets in order to get that close," Danika filled in. She had a distinctly disapproving tone in her voice. I knew how she felt. Somebody had taken the trouble to physically disable the turrets, thereby insuring that a normal systems check wouldn't detect the problem for some time. The question that bothered me was who had taken the time and effort to do it.

"Which means it was an inside job," I said. "I've got a disturbing twist in my stomach that says whoever did the turrets cleared out the Vulkars, too."

"C'ld be a tr'p," Hestra said.

Danika shook her head. "If it is, we have to walk into it. We don't have time to find another way."

Grimly, Carth agreed.

"So why's this friend of yours so important, anyway?" Mission asked. "Is she an officer or something?" She'd heard the gist of our agreement with Gaddon earlier and knew that we wanted to 'win' the prize the Vulkars had put up for the swoop race this year. She also knew that we were Republic soldiers, courtesy of my ID docs, but none of us had ever told either her or Gaddon about Bastila's Jedi status.

I wrinkled my nose at the thought of the prissy brunette Jedi. I'd never actually met her before but I'd seen her around the _Endar Spire_ enough to know a little bit about what she was like. "Something like that," I said to Mission.

A strong emotion twisted Carth's face for a moment as if he was struggling with something. In another moment his face cleared and he opened his mouth to speak. "She's a Jedi," he said.

I felt my eyebrows lift as Mission's eyes widened. Carth was paranoid, he'd barely trusted Danika, Hestra, and I. Mission was a stranger, met only a few hours before. That Carth was trusting her with something as big as the fact that Bastila was a Jedi was nothing short of a miracle.

Mission whistled at Carth's words. "I've heard about her," she said. "She's the big shot that killed Revan right?"

I shrugged. "That's what the holonet said."

"So if she's such a big shot, why'd she get captured by the Vulkars? They aren't that hard to right, they're just a bit trigger happy."

Carth looked surprised for a brief moment and then scowled. Both Hestra and Danika grinned broadly, as did I. "You know I never thought about that before," I said.

"Shut up," Carth said.

"Oh don't be so butt-hurt," Danika said. "I'm sure she just got caught off guard or something." The corner of her mouth twitched as she spoke and her tone was that of barely contained mirth.

"The explanation for this is going to be priceless," I said. Danika burst into a fit of wild laughter. Hestra held her composure well, just standing there and smiling. Carth just stood there with a face like stone, a look that made me join Danika in the laughter. Mission was not far behind.

Hestra looked unimpressed with the entire situation despite her smile. She shifted her rifle in her arms and cleared her throat. "So, we 'bout r'dy t' go?" she asked.

Struggling for composure, I shrugged again. I raised an eyebrow and aimed the silent question at the rest of the group. Carth didn't get it, though I thought Hestra did. She did nothing except give me a level stare. Danika picked up immediately after she'd sobered up and responded in kind. "Sabine and I are ready to go," she said. "That is, unless anyone wants to ask any more questions."

"Like the meaning of life," I cracked.

Completely straight faced, Hestra added her own two bits to the banter. "Forty-nine," she said.

Carth's mouth twitched and his whole face warped in a strange look somewhere between confusion and bewilderment as he looked between Hestra, Danika, and me. Danika glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and grinned. "I'll take that as a no," she said.

I straightened my expression and flourished my rifle, implicating Danika in the process. "Ladies first," I said.

She took the invitation instantly, striding down the corridor as she snorted. "So, what? You're not a lady now?" she said as she walked.

"No I aint," I replied as I follow, stretching out my vowels and twisting the pronunciation my words with a twang. "I'm an over-grown monkey-lizard, don'tcha know."

I heard Hestra's soft chuckle as the others followed behind me. My sharp ears picked up Carth's voice, trying to be quiet. "Did I miss something?" he asked.

"Nope," Hestra replied. "Ya didn' miss a thin'."

* * *

To Be Continued...

12


	9. Chapter 9

Gone For Gone Chapter 9; Hinder

**Chapter 9**

**Hinder **

Kandon Ark was not one to let his guard down. Among the Vulkars such a mistake could be deadly, especially if Brejik was involved. The Vulkar's leader had entrusted him with the precious swoop accelerator until the race. As a result, he'd hardly left the engine lab since it had arrived. He had gone so far as to set up a makeshift bed in the corner and have two men with him at all times in addition to Laurna, his bodyguard. One of the men brought meals, so the only reason any of them needed to leave the lab was to use the 'fresher. Fortunately there was one just down the hall.

As the evening dragged on, Kandon amused himself by playing pazzak with Laurna. The table they were using was heavy and detached from the floor, allowing someone to tip it over for cover if they were so inclined. One section of the table lined up with the wall and both Kandon and Laurna were positioned so that their peripheral vision encompassed both doors into the room. Since the time he'd spent in the lab had been fairly dull so far, Kandon was beginning to suspect that he wouldn't need to guard the engine at all. Who would be insane enough to try and steal the engine from inside the Vulkar base? After all they had a guard and a pair of turrets sitting outside the front entrance and a fracking rancor snacking on everything coming through the back way. For the past six hours he'd been working up to convince himself to sleep in his own bunk again.

It was just as well he didn't, because the evening shift of guards never showed up. "Bri," he growled to one of the guards in the corner. "Call Zur and Omas. Find out what's taking them so long."

The guard pulled out his comlink eagerly, he'd been guarding the shavit engine all day and was very ready for a long stint with his bunk. "Zur, Omas!" he hissed into it. "The two of you are late for your shift!" Expecting a quick and vicious response, Bri was almost knocked over by the silence that followed. He tried every comm frequency he had, but still no one answered.

Kandon set down his cards and watched Bri run through the frequencies a second time. He was glad he'd stayed with the engine, but not very happy about the prospect of having to actually fight for the thing. He detested sticking his neck out for anyone, even himself. At least he had the two guards and Laurna between him and the engine.

"Get ready," Kandon said. "We're going to have company soon."

* * *

Danika led the way yet again, turning down the filthy, ill-smelling maze of corridors that compromised the Vulkar base with her usual ease. I concentrated hard on my surroundings, sensitive ears and nose straining for signs of life, or more importantly trouble. I picked up nothing as we walked, but that served only to agitate me further. Primed and itchy for a fight, I was apparently just as much of a deterrent as I had been early in the sewers with my nose stuffed up with nose plugs against the stink of the sewers. Just as before, everyone was giving me a wide berth, even T3. Danika wasn't cheerful about it this time, she was too concentrated on finding the elevator to focus on much else.

The gun turrets guarding the elevator had truly been disabled, though I'd half suspected they were still live. I insisted on a closer inspection and found that a bunch of wires had been crossed. The programming would still look good, but when the shavit hit the fan the turrets would be useless. Just to make sure I pulled out my dagger and systematically shredded the guts of all of them. The Vulkars would have to replace all the wires and most of the circuits in order to get them working again. Now no one would be able to simply hook up the right wires and have them ready to go when we came back this way.

"The elevator's too small," Danika said when I was done. "It won't fit all of us."

"Well," I replied as I stood up, "if anyone's down there, they'll know when the elevator's been activated."

Danika nodded in agreement. "We have to assume that someone's down there, which means that we only have one chance."

"I'll st'y b'hind wi' th' droid," Hestra said.

Mission opened her mouth, but I cut her off before she could speak up. "You've been in enough trouble today," I said. "You and Zaalbar are staying behind." Hairless blue eyebrows drew down angrily at my words, but Zaalbar put his hand on her shoulder before she could speak and gave a Wookie moan. It didn't translate into Basic, but the meaning was clear. Zaalbar didn't want to worry about her getting hurt again. Mission kept her mouth shut, but barely. As Carth, Danika, and I piled into the elevator she shot me a glare that could flay the skin off a gundark. Just before the doors shut I locked gazes with her warm brown eyes and tried to make her understand that when it came down to the line I was just as stubborn as she was. I liked the teenage Twi'lek and I gave her credit for surviving on her own in the Lower City, but I was her senior by nearly two decades. In addition to that I had more years of experience fighting than she'd been alive, as did Danika, Carth, and Hestra. In matters of such things, we were going to call the shots, not the other way around.

The elevator descended with a series of disconcerting creaks and wobbles. Danika and I exchanged looks, a question passing between our eyes. Would the elevator hold until we got to the bottom?

"This elevator doesn't seem very solid," Carth said. "You'd think the Vulkars would maintain their building better."

"They probably don't care," I replied.

"Lucky us," Danika grumbled.

Despite all the concerns, the elevator made it to the second level in once piece. I stepped out quickly into the hallway, rifle at the ready. Danika followed, automatically taking my left. I didn't turn back to look, but I could hear Carth behind us both. As we continued down the hallway he let us lead, knowing our goal but unsure of our methods in completing it. It occurred to me then that he was a pilot; he'd likely not participated in too many ground battles. In light of that new fact I was glad he was bringing up the rear.

Like the floor above, this level was relatively empty of Vulkars. There were a few in one of the rooms we searched, but they were out cold. I could smell the drug on their breaths. Spice, but not the regular kind. Someone had cooked spice and cut it with another substance. That took time, patience, and more brains than I'd seen in any of the Vulkars we'd encountered so far. I wrinkled my nose both for distaste of the smell and for the mystery being who seemed to be helping us.

"Looks like they've been drugged," Danika said, lifting a pack of spice from in front of one of the unconscious Vulkars. I was glad I didn't have to say anything, I knew now that my ability to smell and hear were both way out of the human norm.

"Somebody is going to a considerable amount of trouble to make sure that there's a clear path to the accelerator," Carth said.

"I was just thinking the same thing myself," I replied.

Carth frowned, dark brown eyebrows drawing into a frown. "I don't like it," he said.

"Yeah, well you don't have to like it, Flyboy," Danika said. "You just have to live with it."

"Right," I said. Weaving through the tight grouping of tables towards the door, I carried my rifle high so it wouldn't snag a stray glass or a slumped head. I heard two sets of footsteps behind me and knew that Danika and Carth were following me.

Once outside the room the door closed and after a seconds hesitation I turned back and slung my rifle over my shoulder. Using my knife I pried up the front plate of the activation panel. Sheathing the knife and dispensing with subtlety, I reached my fingers in and ripped out the wires inside. There was no way to know how long the Vulkars would be out and I didn't want one sneaking up and shooting me in the back. My armor was solid, but I'd learned over the years that it was better not to rough up your equipment more than you had too.

"Okay," I said when I was finished. "Danika, can you find the accelerator?"

The dark haired smuggler turned to face the hallway, her eyes turning inward. After a few long moments, her eyes flickered back to the real world and she pointed. "It's in that direction," she said.

I gestured with my rifle for her to lead the way and she did so. Carth and I followed carefully. I could see the tension in the muscles of his arms as he held his blasters at the ready. It was so subtle I would have missed it if not for my newfound senses. Danika was tense too, I could see it in the lines her back muscles made in the thick padding of her light armor. There was a fight ahead, we knew. Though our little escapade had been fairly quiet thus far, it couldn't last.

Pausing in front of a door Danika signaled us to stop without speaking. We took her cue and stayed silent, though Carth's footsteps were still loud in my ears. I softened my own footfalls, putting each boot down silently.

There were three doors in front of us. The first one, which was the closest to Carth and me, was marked clearly as a 'fresher. I eyed it with a critical eye as Danika carefully checked both remaining doors, making sure which one held the accelerator, no doubt. I hadn't had access to a 'fresher since we'd descended into the Lower City and I couldn't remember what it felt like to feel clean. Sighing, I let the matter drop for the moment. We didn't have time to lurk in the Vulkar base for a bath. I could only hope that I'd be able to bathe once we got the accelerator to the Beks.

Danika signaled towards the far door, indicating with her gestures that she was sure that was the room we wanted. I hefted my rifle and gave Carth and inquiring look, asking with my eyes if he wanted to open the door. He didn't understand what I was trying to communicate, however, so I padded up to the activation panel and slipped one hand from my rifle to touch it.

The door slid open, followed quickly by a rapid and rather desperate sounding flurry of blaster shots. I pressed flat against the wall as Danika dodged and did likewise. Carth dodged as well, but didn't hug the wall. As I turned my head to check the angle of fire on his position I saw Danika shoot him an annoyed glance and grab his arm to drag him against the wall.

I shifted my grip on my rifle and was about to aim it around the corner when a voice came out of the room itself and stopped me short. "You're here for the accelerator, no doubt. Perhaps we could make a deal." The voice was distinctly male and spoke in the native Twi'lek language.

"Depends on the deal," Danika called back. Carth glared at her, no doubt thinking that she was about to betray the Beks. I didn't think she would, but I couldn't say for sure. Danika had always had fewer scruples than I did.

"It's so hard to find good help these days," the as-of-yet-unnamed Twi'lek said. "Perhaps you would be willing to work for the Vulkars for a considerable pay raise." As he spoke I watched Danika's face carefully.

I didn't like the sound of the deal. If the Twi'lek inside the room was Brejik, it might hold some merit. However if the man talking wasn't the leader of the Beks nothing was guaranteed. He could just be trying to draw us into the doorway and into shooting range. There was the fact that we'd destroyed their pet rancor and several gun turrets in order to get inside the base in the first place to consider as well. I doubted Brejik would appreciate that.

The same thoughts played across Danika's face, but I knew that I was probably the only one who recognized it. I'd spent enough time with her to know her well. It also helped that because of my new-found senses I could track the small intricate movements of the muscles and tendons underneath her skin that indicated subtleties I would never have picked up before. I looked over at Carth and saw distinct disapproval. He wasn't hiding it however and he was glaring so hard at the back of Danika's head I was expecting smoke to start rising at any time. Neither Carth nor I said anything however. Danika had spoken first, so it was her decision.

Danika's eyes shifted focus to lock with my own gaze. The muscles and tendons of her face shifted into a universal tension underneath her skin and she nodded once. I realized then that she wasn't planning to answer the Twi'lek in the room at all. I gave her the same expression and nod back and turned my head back to the door. I completed my previous maneuver and used my rifle to blindly shoot into the room without presenting an easy target.

Danika moved from her position by the wall and rushed to the doorway, firing into the room but giving me enough room to get past her. I had expected her to charge into the room with her vibroblade, but I caught on to her plan at once. I was wearing armor that would absorb most shots, thereby allowing me more of an advantage in the small room. Taking the cue, I charged into the room with my rifle, hearing footsteps behind me through the din of blaster bolts. They were heavy but quick so they had to belong to Carth.

The room wasn't very big, but it held four people. I could see two of them clearly, they had attempted to take cover behind a small workbench that wasn't big enough for even one of them. Pinned down by Danika's fire, they made an easy target. I aimed for their necks and heads, circumventing the heavy armor they wore.

Even as I cut down the first two Vulkars Carth ducked into the room behind me, taking what little cover there was by a large, cylindrical object to the left of the door. It almost looked like an ancient water heater, but I didn't have time to investigate it further and find out for sure.

The other two Vulkars were huddled behind a heavy metal table, which I fired at. Danika took her cue and rushed into the room, charging towards the table at full speed. She leaped onto the tilted edge and balanced there as she fired at the two Vulkars hiding behind it. One of them got off a shot before they died. It whizzed by Danika's head, centimeters from taking her ear off. A few more shots from Danika's rifle and it was all over. "Got 'em!" she called.

"Are you okay?" Carth asked. The tone of his voice caused me to turn my head to see the look on his face. It was pale, making the dark scruff of a beard on his chin stand out sharply.

Twisting her body so she could look Carth in the face, Danika raised one dark brow. "I'm fine," she said. She was still balanced on the edge of the table.

"Get down," I said. "Quit showing off and help us find the swoop accelerator."

Danika flashed me a grin before turning to face forward again. She swung her rifle over her shoulder and leaped down into the space with the bodies of the remaining Vulkars. "I'll be there in a minute," she said.

"Just don't get blood on your clothes," I said as I walked further into the room. "Because if you do, I'm not cleaning it up."

"What are you doing?" Carth asked. He sounded appalled and I thought about explaining it to him but decided to leave Danika to it. The muffled sounds of her looting the dead bodies sounded loud in my ears as I searched the room.

There wasn't much of it. There was the main area where we'd had the firefight and a small room parallel to the door but separated from the main room by a wall. Sitting smack dab in the middle of the room on a small square table was a swoop engine. It wasn't very big, but it looked heavy. "Great," I sighed. Cocking my head, I listened to the sounds of the argument between Carth and Danika. It sounded like it was brewing into a nice fight.

Turning my back on the engine, I walked over to Carth and Danika.

"Why not?" Danika asked indignantly. "They don't care."

"It's wrong!" Carth practically shouted. He was almost purple in the face by then.

"Yeah, I heard you the first time. And unless you can give me a valid argument I'm not going to stop doing it."

"I hate to break up the mood here," I began. "But we have a problem. Is there a sack or a case back there, Danika?"

"No, why?" Danika asked.

"We need something to carry the engine in."

Carth still looked angry. He tried to extend the argument to me, but I cut him to the chase. "Don't try and bring me into this, Mister Hero. I'll just gang up on you with Danika. I've known her longer. Now could you help me look for something to carry the swoop accelerator with?" I put my hands on my hips and shifted my feet into a more solid stance.

Carth paused for a moment and I could see that he was considering perusing the argument, but he wisely kept his mouth shut. He shot one last glare at Danika before turning to search the room. I sidled over and made a show of looking, waiting until Carth decided to look in the room we'd passed over; the one between us and the 'fresher. As soon as he was through and the door closed behind him I went over to search the Vulkars that had gotten killed first.

"They must have been higher up on the food chain," Danika said. "They had some high grade stuff."

The two dead Vulkars I searched didn't have much more than a few extra plasma cartridges and a handful of frag grenades. "Don't think about it, it's already done," I said.

"We're going to have one hell of a time getting out with that thing," she said. She glanced over the door which had automatically closed behind Carth.

"We'll find a way," I said. "We always do." As I stood up I gave her a steady look. "Now stop brewing about it and let's go help Carth find a container for the accelerator."

Without a word, Danika walked over to the other door and palmed the activation panel. I followed her and worried about her switching sides later, I'd been there when she'd done it before. Just as I palmed open the door I realized that a few weeks ago I'd have been brewing right alongside her. Reviewing recent events in my mind I wondered when that had changed.

* * *

Canderous watched the security feed as the small group started out of the Vulkar base. They were heading the way they had come, towards the rear entrance guarded by the now-dead rancor. It was a good tactical decision, they'd already cleared that path of enemies. However he could clearly see from his position that it was going to end badly.

Watching the scene through the single surviving camera, Canderous took note of the group of Vulkars exclaiming and shouting over the corpse of the rancor. They were only the first of several groups that would return shortly. Canderous knew this because the Vulkars had been in Davik's pocket for some time and he'd been forced to visit the base before on business. That was how he'd been able to switch the clean supply of spice at the base with his drugged batch and how he'd known the Vulkars had recently stolen a modified swoop engine from the Hidden Beks.

Canderous had used his influence in the last few days to learn the routines and patterns of the Vulkar base. Brejik had been aggressive towards him for it, but the whelp was easy for the Mandalorian to put back in his place.

The group of Vulkars would discover the blond woman and her companions shortly. They would then try to keep the blond woman's group pinned down until the others arrived. Only in strength of numbers would the Vulkars attempt to fully defeat them. It was a cowardly but none the less effective tactic that the swoop gang favored.

Canderous tried to think of some way to help the group without exposing himself. He knew that he could cause any number of distractions, but in all likelihood it would not push the blond woman to try the other exit if she was anything like his Sandra. He had to find a different way.

Looking around the room full of drugged Vulkars, Canderous finally came to a decision. He reached over and disabled the security feeds. As he walked out of the room, he grabbed his blaster rifle from the table.

* * *

"Son of a schutta!" Danika shouted. She punctuated the comment with a burst of blaster fire at the offending Vulkar.

Briefly ducking to avoid a burst of enemy fire, I popped up from behind my crate and fired a burst of my own from my slugthrower, minus the profanity. I was growling instead, a low, animal sound that didn't even begin to resemble anything human. Force of will alone kept it from being audible to the rest of the group.

For the moment, everything was divided into neat little lines. Here was the case, rusted silver in color and smelling of engine grease. Defend the case, kill anyone who tried to take it. It was that simple, but the intensity of it made me want to do things that disgusted me. It made me want to rush into the group of Vulkars and lay in with teeth and claws; to taste hot blood on my tongue and feel warm flesh underneath my claws. The urge was so strong I could feel my muscles and skin ripple with it.

Carth took advantage of a break in fire from the Vulkars to race up to Danika's side. He fired off a few blasts, his blaster pistols doing more damage as he moved closer to his targets. "We can't stay here!" he shouted over the din. "There might be more coming!" I wanted to growl back a response, but I clamped my teeth down on the impulse. I didn't trust my voice; I wasn't sure how human it would sound.

"Where to?" Danika shouted back at Carth. "If you have any suggestions I'd like to hear them!"

Before Carth could speak something hurled over my head and crashed into the group of Vulkars. Barely a second after it was followed by a small explosion. My concentration faltered for a moment and my growl briefly gained volume. Another grenade exploded in the midst of the stunned Vulkars, causing a sharp ring in my sensitive ears. I knew none of my companions could throw a grenade that far, so I turned to see what the cause of it was.

Feeling my pupils widen in shock I took in the form of the tall, broad shouldered Mandalorian from the Undercity. He was wearing plated heavy armor over his chest and arms. It was painted black so that the telltale gleam of it wouldn't give him away. In his hands was a stout slugthrower rifle with a grenade launching tube attached to the bottom.

Shoving another grenade into the tube, Canderous cocked his weapon. Only then did his eyes leave the Vulkars, sweeping over my companions as he spoke. "Move! Before they recover!"

I turned my head and locked eyes with Danika. I asked a silent question and she answered. I got up and charged towards the clear path paved by the grenades, grabbing the case with the accelerator in it as I did so. "Come on, Flyboy!" Danika said as she dragged the pilot along with her. The others needed no more encouragement, I could hear their footfalls behind me.

Canderous put on a burst of speed to catch up with me. He ran a little way ahead, steering our group to the side of the tunnel we'd originally come through. Since there was no one who would be able to see it, I adjusted my eyes. It was like a light had been turned on. I could see every nook and cranny in the room, including the doorway that Canderous was leading us towards. Once I saw it I knew Canderous had been this way before; there was no way he'd have been able to spot it as we were running.

The big Mandalorian slowed once inside the doorway long enough to pull out a glow rod. I saw what he was reaching for just in time to adjust my eyes accordingly and avoid being blinded.

We ran for a while, taking the twists and turns of the small tunnel Canderous had led us into at breakneck speeds. He would have kept going if I had noticed Mission beginning to fall behind. I reached up and firmly gripped the Mandalorian by the shoulder. He slowed down in response and I let go after he'd settled down to a fast walk. Holding the glow rod for maximum visibility, Canderous turned his head and searched my face with his gray eyes. He was wearing the same unreadable expression he'd had in the Undercity, except this time I could see clearly the arrangement and tension of the muscles and tendons in his face. From this perspective I could see the worry around his eyes, the confusion in his forehead, and the resigned determination in his jaw. The information combined and coalesced in my mind and brought me to a single, heart stopping conclusion.

Canderous knew me.

It was only when Hestra cleared her throat behind me that I realized I was still gripping Canderous' shoulder. I let go promptly and fell a few paces behind him. Shaken partially out of my revelation I was still in that state of mind enough to come to another realization. Not only did Canderous know me, but I knew him. I had touched the man on the shoulder without speaking or even fully realizing I'd done it, a gesture that was for me extraordinarily intimate. The only other person I'd touched in that familiar a fashion was Danika. Not even my succession of boyfriends had had that privilege.

And yet, despite all evidence, I had no recollection of Canderous at all before encountering him in the Undercity. He had enough scars and familiarity with weapons that I knew he was a veteran. Whether he'd participated in the Mandalorian War or not was irrelevant, in all the years since I'd left Deralia for the wider galaxy I'd never come close to a full blown war. Danika and I had taken distinct pains to avoid both the Mandalorian War and what had come after. The brief battle above Taris in the _Endar Spire_ had been the first time we'd been anywhere near Republic-Sith hostilities.

What was wrong with me, that I a Mandalorian I'd never seen before in my life? And why could I shape shift and yet distinctly recall having two human parents? Something trembled on the edge of my consciousness as the thoughts passed through my mind. Goose bumps ran up my spine at the feeling, which was quickly followed by a deep sense of foreboding. Whatever this was, whoever I was, it was going to get a lot worse before it got better.

Unable to deal with so many new concepts at once, I concentrated hard on the ambient sounds around me, drowning out my thoughts one by one.

* * *

To Be Continued...

10


	10. Chapter 10

Gone For Good Chapter 10; Backlash

**Chapter 10**

**Backlash**

"This shaft should lead you back to the Lower City," Canderous said. He was keeping his gaze neutral and looked at everyone for the same amount of time, though I noticed that he was carefully ignoring me. I returned the favor, carefully keeping my body language inoffensive. Until I was sure what was going on, _if_ I was ever sure, I would not confront Canderous about it. On the same note I didn't want to announce my situation to the rest of the group, especially not Danika. Normally I trusted the black-haired smuggler with everything, but this was different. I'd had a feeling of foreboding about the whole thing from the beginning and the simple fact was that I trusted no one with it. I wouldn't have even told Hestra if she hadn't been right there when my eyes had shifted.

"Thanks," Danika said to Canderous. She was also keeping her body language toned down, probably in light of the angry Republic pilot to her left. I eyed Carth carefully, silently agreeing with Danika's sentiment. Carth's muscles were stretched hair-trigger tight. If Canderous said or did the wrong thing Carth would have his shiny little pistols all over the Mandalorian.

Canderous nodded and left down the tunnel, away from the shaft he'd shown us. He so pointedly didn't look at me as he turned away that I picked up on it anyway. Only when he was out of sight down the next bend in the tunnel did Carth begin to relax.

"You don't like Mandalorians," I said to Carth. I was careful to keep my tone even.

"They're mercenaries!" He said. His eyes were wide and his expression was incredulous, like he couldn't believe I was even bringing up the point. "They destroy lives!"

"And you do what?" I asked. "Preserve lives? You're a soldier, Carth. You have destroyed just as many lives as any Mandalorian. Do you think that just because they wear black armor that they don't have lives like we do?"

Carth's whole body tensed up and his face turned red with anger. In contrast I felt ice cold and perfectly calm. My mind stilled as I prepared for a long argument.

"Stop it," Danika said quietly. "Both of you." Her face was utterly smooth, her body still. I could see the cold fire in her eyes, though. She felt the same way I did.

For several long moments Carth didn't move, but eventually the extra blood left his face and the muscles beneath the skin smoothed out, one by one. I just stood there and watched silently, knowing that any move or sound I made could set him off again. It was a subject he felt strongly about, that much was clear.

Still keeping an eye on Carth, I surveyed the rest of the group. Hestra was tense, her moss green eyes hard and her face pulled in calculatingly tight. Mission kept shifting her gaze between Carth, Danika, and myself, her usual bravado stripped away to reveal the teenager beneath. Zaalbar stood behind her like a mountain, still and quiet, his eyes never leaving Danika. I could barely read his musculature underneath all his fur, but what I could pick up told me he was resigned. I realized that he had been expecting something like this to happen. T3 sat quietly on his rollers, his sensory light a subdued blue.

"Th' race is comin' up s'n," Hestra said softly. "We shu' git movin' 'fore th' Vulkars 'ave a 'issy fit."

I nodded, keeping the movement slow and careful. "I'll go first," I said. Against my instincts I turned my back on Carth and climbed up the ladder of the shaft with the accelerator in its case in tow. No one said anything else, they just climbed up the ladder behind me.

At the top of the shaft I propped the accelerator case between a rung of the ladder and my belly. Using my free hand, I reached up and moved the cover just above my head aside cautiously. I paused there, straining my ears to pick up any sounds that would indicate danger. I heard a slow, steady dripping of water and voices in the distance, but other than that it was fairly quiet. I grabbed the accelerator case and heaved it up onto the lip of the floor above. I heaved my body up after it, landing on the street of the Lower City in a crouch. I pulled out my little-used blaster pistol and quickly scanned the area with my eyes, nose, and ears. There was almost no need, the immediate area was empty. It had been for some time, the marks of small animals stood out clearly in the dust and made the lack of anything sentient-sized obvious.

"It's clear," I said softly as I stood up, accelerator case in hand. I moved away from the shaft's opening, allowing for the others to come up.

I moved further into the room, keeping my footfalls silent. We were in the remains of a long-abandoned corridor. There were only a few scattered glow rods still working and the air smelled stale. "Mission," I said. "Why is this place abandoned?"

"The heating failed, I think," Mission answered. "Nobody's lived here as long as I can remember."

"You can still find your way to the Hidden Bek base, right?" Danika asked.

"Yeah, sure. No problem." Mission replied cheerfully. Apparently happy to be back on ground she was familiar with, Mission bounced ahead of the group and walked out of the room. The rest of us followed.

After we had been walking for some time something occurred to me. "Hey, Mission," I said. "Why didn't anyone tell us about this entrance into the sewers before?"

"Nobody really comes in here," the teenage Twi'lek replied.

"Uh," I paused, warning bells flying up in my mind, "why?"

"Well, everybody says that something lives down here."

"Uh-huh. Everybody said that a rancor was guarding the Vulkar's base, too. Have you and Zaalbar ever explored this area?"

"Big Z always complains about the cold before we get too far."

"But he's got fur everywhere!" Danika protested.

"_It doesn't really help all that much," _Zaalbar protested.

"So that's a no," I said, ignoring Danika and Zaalbar.

"No," Mission answered me, also ignoring her Wookie friend and Danika.

"Shavit," I mumbled.

"I th'nk I hear somethin'," Hestra said.

"Please tell me you're joking," I moaned. After the words came out of my mouth my ears confirmed what Hestra had said.

Being the only member of the group that knew my secret Hestra knew that she didn't have to say anything, but she did anyway. "Nope," Hestra said smugly.

The scrape of claws on permacrete sounded clearly to the rest of the group. Everyone pulled out various weapons, some with more enthusiasm that others. Danika grinned as she pulled out her vibrosword. "Five credits says it's a giant rodent," she said.

"No bet," I replied.

"Ten if it's a r'pt'le," Hestra said.

"You guys are nuts!" Mission said as she disappeared in a halo of blue sparks. Through the sound-muffling effects of her stealth unit I heard her pull out a weapon. T3 whistled and Zaalbar warbled in agreement. One glance over at Carth showed that he was still angry over our earlier encounter and ready to take it out on anything he could fire his blasters at.

Only moments later a large furred form barreled around the corner. Danika ran towards it, her vibrosword held for an upward slash. Her charge confused the beast and caused it to stutter to a stop. It never got the chance to dodge. One vibrosword and six different types of blaster bolts ripped into its hide. It had time to let out one ear-piercing shriek before it died.

I didn't need extra-sensitive hearing to hear an answering shriek from further off.

"I think it's a draw," Danika said from her close-up view of the dead beast. "This thing has scales _and_ fur."

"That can't be right," Hestra replied. She lowered her weapon and walked toward Danika to examine the dead beast for herself.

"Hey, guys," I said nervously. "Can we take up this argument later?"

"Yeah, there are more of those things coming!" Mission's disembodied voice joined in. Zaalbar gave a warbling trill of agreement.

Danika frowned at me like she was going to protest, but at the first sounds of claws on permacrete Hestra grabbed the younger woman's arm and dragged her towards the rest of us at a full run. The others turned to run with them, but I stayed in place for a moment to cover our retreat. I shot several scaled rat things in the face before I turned to run with the others.

Mission had turned off her stealth unit, she was leading the group through the twists and turns of the half lit passageways. The rat things were right behind us and gaining, only to fall back when I fired randomly from my upside down blaster rifle. T3 kept pace next to me, his head pointed backwards so that he could fire the blaster pistol mounted in his head.

The temperature raised suddenly in one hallway and more of the glow rods in the ceilings were lit. The rat things chased us for a while longer, skidding to a stop suddenly when we encountered a hall that was fully lit. I turned my head over my shoulder to look back when the sounds of pursuit faltered, seeing a solid wall of glittering eyes and long snouts glaring at me as I turned the corner.

"We lost them," I called to the rest of the group. T3 whistled next to me.

The rest of the group slowed to a walk gratefully. We didn't stop completely, and all of us turned our heads over our shoulders to check the way behind us.

"What the frack where those things anyway?" I asked after a while.

"They kinda looked like rat-lizards, but I've never seen them get _that_ big," Mission answered.

"Damn," Danika said. "Then it really was a draw."

Hestra shrugged. "Luck o' th' draw," she said.

"You're nuts, Dani," I told my friend.

"Can't help it," she said cheerfully. "I was born that way."

Eventually we came out into familiar looking permacrete hallways. I sighed in relief when I saw the Rodian guard in front of Javyar's Cantina in the distance. Shifting my grip on my blaster rifle, I slung it over my shoulder. Each of my companions did something similar with their own weapons.

The Rodian bouncer eyed our motley group as we passed but gave us no trouble. We stopped in front of a door a little ways off, guarded by a slim dark-skinned human woman wearing a combination of blues and whites that singled her out as a Hidden Bek.

"Hey, guys," she said carefully. I knew how we must have looked. We were all stained and smeared with unidentifiable substances that would offend even the most nose deaf. We were all running heavily armed and wearing well-used armor, even if it was a bit new. The last she'd seen of us we'd been clean, smelled halfway decent, and hadn't been sporting dozens of small wounds.

"We've got the accelerator," Danika said to her.

"Hmph," the Hidden Bek guard siad. "Looks like you went through hell to get it. Go on through, and feel free to get cleaned up before you see Gaddon."

"That'll be the first stop," I said with true relief in my voice as I walked through the open door.

The Hidden Bek base was more open than the Vulkar base had been. The walls were old and worn but well scrubbed. The glow lights were well maintained, all of them shone brightly on their wall mounts. No creaky elevators here.

The whole place was jam packed full of people hiding from the Vulkars. Beings of all shapes and sizes camped and sprawled here and there. Groups of children raced two and fro screaming in ear-piercing delight. One family caught my eye, a pair of Togorians. The younger one was the male that I had encountered just outside the Lower City elevator. I took it that the older female next to him was his mother by the way they behaved around each other. She had a more typical coloration than her son; being gray with black stripes and deep red eyes.

Gaddon was at his usual spot behind his desk. Since it was across the large common room I couldn't make out what he was saying to Zaerdra, but it looked like another argument. It made me fairly happy I was getting cleaned up first. Zaerdra always seemed to be in a foul mood whenever she had a row with Gaddon. Not that she took it out on him. She saved that for anyone else who crossed her path.

"Come on," Mission said. "The 'freshers are this way." As she walked off Zaalbar grumbled. "Well too bad, Big Z. You're not eating until you've had a shower." The proclamation made the young Wookie wail in protest, but Mission continued to argue with him. It reminded me of the banter between myself and Danika and the similarity made me smile.

We all took a turn in the 'fresher, though everyone agreed that Zaalbar should go first. While I was waiting for my turn I sat with my back against the wall and polished T3 up with a borrowed rag. The little droid whistled quietly, pleased to get the attention. I quite liked the little guy. He had more personality than most droids I'd encountered.

"You're up, Sab," Danika said as she stepped out of the fresher. I could tell she'd used the static option on the shower. She was perfectly dry and smelled faintly of some soft, fresh scent that seemed to be a universal default for 'freshers everywhere.

"Are there towels in there?" I asked. "And soap?"

"Yes. And no, I'm not just saying that. I actually checked for you."

I smiled at Danika. "Thank you," I told her. I gave T3 one last rub before standing up.

"You know you'll be cold when you get out with a wet head and all. You might catch a cold."

"I know," I replied as I stepped into the 'fresher. Danika just shook her head at my words. It was a continuing argument. Danika thought it was strange that I used the water setting on the shower rather than the static setting. The argument that she kept using was that it was unhealthy to be that wet, and that coming out of the shower wet tended to get one dirty faster. I always ignored her.

The 'fresher's door whooshed closed behind me, closing off any further retorts Danika might have made. I set down my pack gratefully and meticulously stripped off my gear. I cleared my mind as I did so, feeling keenly the dirt and grime on my skin.

It was a quick two steps into the 'fresher's shower unit. The whole of the 'fresher was small and designed to save space. It was rather similar to design of 'fresher seen on most space-fairing vessels. I shut the transparisteel divider that kept the rest of the 'fresher dry should the user choose the water setting. I palmed in my preferred temperature setting and pressed the activation panel. A small cylindrical object unfolded from the wall half a foot above my head.

When the hot water hit my skin I closed my eyes and sighed in pleasure. My newfound awareness allowed me to fully appreciate the tension that melted away under the heat. Only my bruises ached under the attention. I let the water wash over my body for a moment longer before reaching for the sop. Scrubbing roughly at my skin, I proceeded to work out the dirt and grime. I did the same with my hair, carefully combing it out with my fingers.

The whole process took longer than a static shower would have, but it left me feeling more clean. I used a towel to dry myself off as much as was possible and dug around in my pack for fresh clothes. I didn't put my armor back on, though I did replace my belt around my waist. I put my boots back on as well, though they were just as disgusting as my armor. I slung my pack over my shoulder along with my rifle and gathered my dirty clothes and armor in my arms. Pinning them against my chest with one arm, I used the other to palm open the door.

"Hey, T3, has Mission used the fresher yet?" I asked. The little droid swerved his photoreceptor towards me and whistled a negative. "I didn't think so," I replied. "Did you see where she went?" T3 swiveled his head again and beeped 'over there.' I turned to follow the direction he was pointing in and saw the young Twi'lek sitting at a table. I couldn't see clearly what she was doing from where I was, not without changing my eyes, but I could guess. There weren't very many work opportunities for a fourteen year old Twi'lek orphan, especially a female one. And since Mission wasn't the type to take charity from others she would have had to find a way to make money on her own. I'd guessed that she was either pickpocketing, which was unlikely since the Hidden Beks seemed fond of her, or she was playing pazzak. With a sigh and a resigned sniff at my old clothes and armor, I started off towards her.

"Shavit, Mission, not again!" A young male human protested. He tossed down the cards in his hand and threw his hands up in disgust. I glanced over the cards and saw that he'd been one point away from winning.

Mission grinned broadly, her brown eyes glittering in triumph. "Hey, I can't help it if I have a way with cards," she said. "Better luck next time!"

The young man gathered together his side deck and left the table. Another one strode forward to take his place, but before he could sit down I spoke up. "Mission," I said. "T3 says you haven't had a turn in the 'fresher yet."

"So?" Mission replied haughtily. "I don't need a shower."

"You must have gone nose-deaf, then," I replied.

"Hey, you're not my mother!" she cried angrily. "You can't tell me what to do!"

"No, I'm not your mother," I said. "But I do outweigh you by at least thirty pounds, so therefore I can make you do anything I want."

Mission's face took on a look of shock and horror. "You wouldn't," she said.

I shifted my stance, dropping my dirty clothes, armor, and accelerator case on the floor. Placing my hands on my hips just above my belt, I lifted a single eyebrow at the young Twi'lek, my face perfectly straight. "You wanna try me?" The space immediately around myself and Mission went deathly quiet.

I saw Mission's muscles tense up before she moved and acted accordingly. I was on top of her before she had taken her first step away from the chair. When I grabbed her she squealed and spout profanities that would have made a Sith soldier's ears curl. I was impressed; she'd collected quite the vocabulary for someone her age.

Mission continued to curse and struggle all the way to the 'fresher. We collected quite a crowd on the way, but no one interfered with me. Some of them even praised my efforts, though I barely heard them over Mission's shrill voice.

I used my foot to press the activation panel for the 'fresher, no small feat with a ninety pound Twi'lek thrashing around in my arms. I then wrestled her into the 'fresher itself, threw her into the shower unit, and slammed the partition shut before she could escape. I held it closed as she continued to have her fit, calmly waiting it out.

After about fifteen minutes, Mission finally ran out of ways to curse me out. She just stood there breathing hard and glaring at me through the partition. "Are you done?" I asked. "Because I'm not letting you out until you're clean."

Someone had kept the door to the fresher open and I could see the crowd watching with baited breath out of the corner of my eye. Mission's eyes studied my face, flicked to the crowd, and then back. I could see the struggle behind her eyes and saw clearly the moment she made her decision. Her entire body went slack and her eyes turned down. Reluctantly, she palmed the activation for the static setting on the shower controls. There was a buzzing sound on the edge of my hearing range and gradually Mission's grimy blue skin cleared.

A beep signaled that the static shower was done with its work. I let go of the partition and backed up enough to let Mission step out of the shower unit. She moved the partition and came out, looking every inch the scorned teenager. Her lekku were curled tightly around her neck and stayed perfectly still. She stopped directly in front of me; I was blocking the door.

"Don't you have something to say to me?" I asked, my tone level.

"Sorry," Mission mumbled, her chin tucked into her lekku.

"Sorry for what?" I prompted.

"I'm sorry for swearing at you," she said.

Without another word I moved out of Missions way, my lower back pressing into the small sink. The crowd parted as Mission passed by me and through the door. No one said a word, but I got several thumbs up from beings in the crowd. I raised my eyebrows at them. "I take it no one's ever done that before," I said.

"She's Gaddon's favorite," one man in Hidden Bek blues said. "He doesn't have the heart to discipline her and Zaerdra doesn't really have the time. Everyone else just lets her go on her way and figures the Wookie will take care of her."

"Right," I said scornfully. It was a scenario I'd seen before. The kid that everyone felt pity for but no one seemed to have the time to actually care for.

I stepped out of the 'fresher as the crowd dispersed. "Come on T3," I said. "Let's go turn the case over to Gaddon so I can get some grub."

* * *

To Be Continued...

10


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Half-light 

_Three Jedi raced onto the bridge of a black ship, their lightsabers whirring. Only a single blaster shot greeted them, immediately deflected back at the shooter and catching him squarely in the chest. One of their number stopped suddenly, dropping his lightsaber to clutch at his throat. The others slowed, but did not attempt to aid him. All their focus was on the figure in front of the bank of transparasteel windows. _

_The figure was dressed in black and rust red. It was a full suit of armor, only the red chest plate visible underneath full black robes. The hood was up, its inky black color covering a triangular mask with only a narrow slit for eyes. It triggered in me the memory of a stopover Danika and I had made too close to the Mid Rim, early in the Mando Wars. They didn't have a news station, but they still got transmissions from deeper in the galaxy from time to time. They'd gotten hold of a holo that was reputed to have been taken from the front lines. It had been blurry, and the color was washed out into shaky blues like all holos were, but the armor had been unmistakable. _

_The figure standing before the group of Jedi was Revan, and from the looks of the situation the timing was sometime recent, near what was considered the end of the Jedi Civil War. _

_A young woman led the Jedi party, her double bladed lightsaber held low. She had a round, cat-like face framed by styled dark brown hair. Bright sky blue eyes greeted me, pale as ice but soft. She couldn't have been much older than Mission, but she looked older now, older than she had a right to be. With a start I recognized her from the Endar Spire. I'd only seen her in passing and always huddled in a small crowd of officers and Jedi, but I recognized her anyway. It was Bastila._

_She gestured grandly at the figure in black and red, her double-bladed lightsaber tilting up slightly as she relinquished her forward hand for the move. "You cannot win, Revan," she said boldly. _

_The figure in black flourished his single, red blade into a defensive posture. It was a silent act of defiance and a challenge, but it held no anger that I could discern. Before the Jedi team could respond shafts of red light lit up the bank of windows, rocking the ship when they impacted. The figure rocked forward with the ship's movement, his lightsaber deactivating once his fingers left the grip. It fell to a floor with a clang, the figure dropping next to it with a heavier thump. Debris and sparks flew about the bridge, though the transparasteel windows held. Of the five remaining Jedi standing before the strike, only two avoided debris flying through the air. Bastila and one other Jedi, a human male whose face I couldn't make out. There was an explosion of phantom pain then, blinding in its intensity even though I knew it wasn't real. I couldn't discern its source but it shook the scene free. _

* * *

Something slammed into my arm, my head. I felt my throat work, but no sound accompanied it. The sound of multiple explosions filled my ears, pain wracked through my shoulder and side. Images flared and danced before my eyes, bright colors and sharp corners. A weight slammed into my back and I thrashed, resisting the suddenly real threat the first coherent thought in my head. My skin felt super-sensitive; I could feel every individual thread in the clothing I wore. Every loose thread, every part of the pattern that was broken in any subtle way was like fire to my senses. I could hear, smell, taste, and hear it.

"Sabine!" The name cut through the illusions and strange visions. My ears and eyes started working properly again. I was in the small room in the Bek base that I was sharing with Hestra and Danika. I could hear the soft noises the air made as it passed through the air vents. The temperature was turned down several degrees for the night cycle. If I really wanted to, I could calculate the exact temperature; I just had to focus a little.

"Sabine, take it easy!" Danika shouted, her pale, heart-shaped face looming large in my vision. Her midnight blue eyes were wide, the pupils almost extinguishing the irises in the whites. I clung to the sight of her, used her as a ground to chase away the terrible pain of the dream. My muscles relaxed as it faded, though Hestra's grip remained firm. My breath came in hard, fast rasps.

"What was that?" I whispered. "It felt so real."

"I know," Danika whispered back. "I know. It's over now."

"No," I replied, my voice growing steady with the statement. "It's just beginning."

Danika stayed quiet, her eyes worried. I could see in them that she knew I was right.

"Tha' famous nose o' yers gittin' a whiff o' tr'ble?" Hestra asked gently from her position on my back. She had let her grip on my shoulders loosen and I knew that if I made a move to get out from under her she would let me go.

I chuckled, a half desperate sound that I had to fight to keep from turning into a sob. Everything was all fracked up in my head. How was I ever going to get it straight? "Yeah," I told the veteran. "Something like that."

"We'll jus' 'ave ta keep our guns r'dy, th'n."

Danika nodded her agreement. "Yes, we will."

"I think I'm going to go use the 'fresher," I said. "You guys feel free to go back to bed."

"I'll be 'ere, if ye be needin' anythin'," Hestra said.

"So will I," Danika added.

"Thanks," I replied. "Both of you." I got up easily, still feeling the bare floor keenly underneath my feet. No one said anything as I slid on my combat boots over my socks and my jacket over the thin under-tunic I'd worn to bed. I strapped on my belt almost as an afterthought, checking to make sure that my long dagger and holdout blaster were secure. I trusted the Beks, but it never hurt to have one or two weapons close at hand anyway.

I walked out of the room and turned right towards the 'fresher. I kept my footfalls silent, not wanting to shatter the quiet night any more than I had already. The dregs of phantom pain still lingered in my body, refusing to give up their hold easily. That would fade with time, I knew. What wouldn't fade however was the dream itself. It had clearly been Revan right when Bastila had killed him, but why would I dream of such a thing? I'd only seen Revan that once in a blurry holo and Bastila only in passing. I'd never even noticed that she had a double-bladed lightsaber before.

Instead of heading for the 'fresher my feet swerved towards the cafeteria. I didn't alter my course; I wasn't going back to sleep any time soon and the cafeteria was as good as any place to pass the time. Once there I sat down on a bench, my hands clasped together and my arms resting on the table before me. Closing my eyes I let the sounds of the air processors soothe me. The image of a green lake formed in my mind, its surface as still as crystal. I let the image permeate my entire body, relaxing my muscle clusters one at a time.

Despite all my efforts, the phantom pain in my shoulder and side did not ease away.

Without disturbing the image of the lake I moved my right hand underneath my jacket and under-tunic, letting it smooth slowly over my left shoulder. For a moment all I felt was smooth skin, but then my extra-sensitive fingers picked up a spot of flesh that was too smooth. Focusing my awareness on the area below the skin, I detected the traces of an old wound nearly perfectly healed. From what I was getting from my soft tissue, a jagged object had passed straight through my shoulder, puncturing one lung, fracturing my collar bone, and shattering a hole in my shoulder blade. An image flashed across the back of my eyelids, making my body flinch. The echoes of a scream filled my ears for a split second. A ripple passed through the lake, then stilled.

My stomach felt as if someone had dumped ice into it and my throat ached. I searched my memory methodically, but there was nothing there about such a severe injury, just like there was nothing there about my ability to shape-shift. I wanted to hop onto the medical records for the Republic, but there was no way to do that while I was stuck on Taris. The Republic's army kept extensive medical records for all its soldiers, including conscripted and hired beings. If there was anything in written record about my scar, it would be there. If it wasn't then it was like it had never happened at all.

I moved my hand down to my right side and went through the same steps I'd taken with my shoulder, with the same results. Repaired tissue damage consistent with a sudden impact with a large, blunt object. The damage continued down and seemed to affect my entire lower body. As I focused on my right leg a faint pang of remembered pain thrummed through my femur. The bone had been shattered into three jagged pieces. The muscle around it had been fairly torn up. Shocked, I brought my focus slowly back up through my body and found that the damage had been more extensive than I'd initially sensed. The disquiet that had grown in me from the beginning thickened into a thrill of fear.

I removed my hand from my leg and set it before me on the table. I swallowed when I saw that it was shaking and clasped my hands together to get it to stop. What had happened to me?

As I sat there in the half-light of the cafeteria my mind ran through thousands of possibilities, each one even less likely than the last.

* * *

I never got back to sleep but I did wander back to the room I shared with Danika and Hestra. I snuck in quietly and grabbed a clean set of clothes and my gear, taking them to the 'fresher to have a shower and change. I'd done a lot of sweating during the.... nightmare? That didn't seem right. What I'd experienced in my sleep was far more keen than a dream and had evoked none of the terror or horror that accompanied nightmares. The scene had played out before my eyes as if it had truly happened and then had ended in pain but there hadn't been fear. So what should I call it? A vision?

The word stuck in my mind and sent a shiver through my body. Goose bumps rose on my skin despite the hot water streaming over it. I could feel each individual one, if I really concentrated hard enough. They were quickly followed by a wave of cold through my body and I huddled under the stream of water, shutting my eyes tight. Vision was the right word to use; I could feel that in my bones. But what kind of vision? Did it mean I was a Jedi or something now? I'd heard things about people developing Jedi-like powers sometimes in the fleet, but I never really heard what happened to those people they'd been discovered.

And anyway, I couldn't see how the vision would mean anything until well after we got of Taris, if we ever did. I decided not to tell Danika or the others and stayed under the shower until the cold retreated into a hard ball in my stomach.

* * *

The Bek base had been crowded the day before, but that had been in the afternoon when everyone had been winding down for the day. In the morning it was nigh on chaos, crowded and loud. There were long lines for the 'freshers and I was glad I'd grabbed a shower earlier.

When she woke up Danika took one look at the lines and glared for a moment. She had a clean set of clothes in hand and had obviously been hoping to get in the 'fresher. Her face was drawn and pale and she looked older than she had yesterday. "You gotta be fracking with me," she said softly.

"Nope," I replied. "You want to get breakfast?"

The black-haired smuggler sighed. "Sure."

"Hey are you okay?" I asked. "You're not your usual perky self this morning."

"Hrmm," Danika grumbled as she walked towards the cafeteria.

"That's not a real answer," I replied.

"Didn't sleep well," she said.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I never got back to sleep at all."

Danika shot me a quick, haunted look, so brief I nearly thought I hadn't seen it at all. "That dream you had, was it about Revan?"

Her words felt like a slap in the face. "It was about when Bastila killed him. Was yours like that?"

"Yeah," she said quietly.

"So we had the same dream?" I asked, trying to keep the panic out of my voice and not entirely succeeding.

"Looks like we did," Danika's voice was creeping away from vulnerable and back to her usual sarcastic bravado. It was how she dealt with everything.

But she had a point, even though she never said it. There really was nothing we could do about it for now. I sighed. "You want me to buy you a drink? The race isn't until tomorrow and the riders aren't allowed on the track until then."

"You can buy me two," Danika replied heartily.

* * *

Danika and I had intended to go to the cantina but had discovered on the way that the Beks had their own small bar inside the base. We were both delighted; it meant we'd have less distance to stumble over when we finally went to sleep off the inevitable hangovers.

The bar was a fairly nice one. Everyone was friendly and the glasses were clean. Both Danika and I ordered Tarisian ale, smiling at each other as we drank. We'd never drank it on the planet it was named for before. In fact before we'd crashed on Taris we hadn't even known where it was exactly except 'somewhere on the Mid Rim.'

After a while Danika and I meandered over to the pazaak table. Despite being thoroughly drunk Danika managed to swindle quite a few credits out of the Beks there. She was probably just as good a player as Mission was, although it difficult to tell since I hadn't really seen Mission play yet. I just stood by and placed bets for the first few rounds, leaving off when Danika began to establish herself and it became clear that I knew her playing style and side deck quite well. My money pouch was several hundred credits heavier by then however, so I didn't really mind.

I managed to get Danika out of the small bar before she got to many Beks angry and she got too drunk. I also managed to get us back to our room in a relatively straight line. Danika feel asleep fairly quickly and started snoring. I stayed awake, once again troubled with the events of the day. As I sat down heavily in my bunk I worked hard to keep myself from breaking out into a cold sweat.

I wasn't drunk.

I'd drank more than Danika had, much more. But despite that I had only gotten a light buzz. I was also extremely hungry despite the fact that I had eaten a good portion of food earlier in the day. It fit in with the realization I'd had back in the Vulkar base, but I hadn't really put much thought into it. I'd felt shock, yes, but I'd never taken it further than that. I did so now.

I wasn't human. Well and truly something entirely different. I'd never heard of a species called 'changeling' before and even if I had both of my parents had been human. I was sure of that, even though I couldn't really remember them properly. The memories I did have were vague, as if someone had told me about them and I had only been half-listening. It was like that with most of my memory, when I bothered to search it. The only crisp memories I really had were of the time Danika and I had spent together aboard the _Urusai_.

Running my shaking hands through my hair I drew a deep breath and sighed. I promised myself I would go through every Republic medical file I could get my hands on as soon as I could. There wasn't really much else I could do.

* * *

I hated piloting vehicles, didn't matter what kind. I always had, only getting my license back on Deralia in order to improve my chances of leaving. There had never been a reason behind it and I had never looked for one. No one else had either, not after they'd ridden in a vehicle with me at the helm. Hestra had been partnered with me on a piloting drill on the _Spire, _and I now suspected that her promising me as the pilot for the Beks to Gaddon had been her way of paying me back for that misadventure.

As the morning for the swoop raced dawned nigh Hestra, Danika, Carth, Mission, Zaalbar, T3, and pretty much every occupant in the Hidden Bek base made their way down to the track. Our small group was able to get into track-side seats because I was a pilot, not to mention we got there quite early despite my protests. The seats quickly filled up and Mission cheerfully informed us that camera droids would provide those who couldn't see the track physically would still be able to view the race.

I felt naked wearing the skin-tight racing leathers the Beks had provided for me. I'd never worn anything like them before, at least not that I could easily remember. Despite that I felt strangely comfortable in them, the feeling running parallel to the feeling of being naked. The whole business caused hot and cold flashes throughout my body. I did my best to shove everything to the back of my mind. It helped when I concentrated on my anger, almost as if I was feeding the emotion until it blocked out everything else.

In the way of equipment I was wearing my usual utility belt, but I wasn't able to have most of my weapons with me and that made me nervous. I had been reduced to the long dagger in my belt, the small one in my boot, and my little-used blaster pistol in its thigh holster. Everything else, my blaster rifles, my vibroblade, and most importantly my armor, were too bulky to have on my person while I was riding the swoop.

The rules of the race were simple. You had three runs around the track, or 'heats.' The goal was to get the best time out of everyone and not simply to finish first during the race as was the case with many such events. I knew I wasn't going to be able to win during my first heat, but I was hell bent on winning on the second heat. I hated the thought of having to circle around the track a third time.

When the time came for the first heat I shoved my helmet on and crouched down on my swoop bike like a predator. Anger seethed underneath my skin like fire. I watched the indicator light above the starting arena and waited, sharply reigning in the urge to surge forward and get it over with.

* * *

Canderous watched the woman down in the track's starting arena trying to suppress the burning spot of hope within him. When he'd locked gazes with her just outside the Vulkar's base it had been different than in the Undercity. There was more recognition in them this time. He was left with no more doubts about her identity. It didn't matter that she had entered into the race under a different name.

When he'd first come to Taris and started working for Davik Canderous hadn't cared if he lived or died. He hadn't ever found another woman to love, nor had he adopted a child to carry on his name as many Mandalorians did these days. He had just been living, existing from one moment to the next. He'd almost welcomed the Sith invasion.

Now everything was different. He was determined to get both himself and Sabine off Taris alive. He smiled to himself as the indicator down in the track. He already had a plan in mind that would get them offworld alive and get Davik what was coming to him.

* * *

I wove in and out of the other racers with deceptively casual ease. I didn't hit every single booster plate but marked the placement of each in the mental map I was constructing of the track. I would hit all of them on my second heat.

Other racers swerved and screamed profanities at me as I passed. I took deadly chances, slipping into spaces just a bit too tight at breakneck speeds. It only proved to fuel my rage, which in turn gave me a very strange calm. It centered me, made all the fear and confusion go away. I knew exactly who and what I was and I needed no one else.

The accelerator engine proved its worth. It was slightly unstable and had a tendency to overheat, but the Bek mechanics had put a supply off coolant feeding right into it that I could inject by a small button on the handlebars. I was careful not to use too much of it, relying heavily on the speed from the booster plates. Even still I ended up in the top ten times after my first heat. The Bek mechanic allowed in the swoop pit strongly suggested I let the engine have a break before I raced my second heat.

I took his advice, standing in the small pedestrian pit and letting myself cool down as well. After a few minutes I was still in a foul mood but I wasn't ready to kill someone anymore. I wanted to get back on the track and get my second heat over with but the Bek mechanic was fiddling around with the engine and looked like he'd be at it for a bit. I growled softly with annoyance at the sight.

Partly to distract myself I looked around the track more thoroughly than I had upon first arriving. Down in the racing pit there was a section for each gang, and there were quite a few, where they displayed the prize they had put up for the race. There was a brand new swoop bike, several scantily clad Twi'lek slaves, a droid or two, and other things like that. None of them really mattered except for the metal cage in the corner that made my blood run cold.

Two Vulkars flanked a small metal cage. Inside it wearing a neural disrupter and wearing a slave girls outfit was Bastila, her dark brown hair dirty and mussed up. There was quite a lot more of it than one would have thought seeing it up in pigtails all the time. Bruises covered her pale skin and her head drooped, weaving slightly in a pattern I recognized.

They'd drugged her. Drugged her, put a collar on her, and penned her up like an animal. It made me want to kill them all. I wanted to twist their arms until they screamed.

Worry lanced through the all-consuming rage like a question. It wasn't my own, and that fact alone shattered the anger, drained it like a lanced infection. Bastila's head bobbed up for a second, her glazed-looking eyes focusing on something no one else could see. A second, weaker note of worry joined the first. Without thinking I turned my head to a specific spot in the crowd behind me and locked eyes with Danika in an instant. A shudder ran through my whole body at the contact.

Realization began to dawn on me but before it could fully manifest I ripped my gaze away from Danika and felt whatever I had been about to discover wither within me. For no fathomable reason I knew that it had to stay that way for a time. I had to bury that part of myself down deep, as far as it would go. Perhaps what I had already discovered was too much.

Refusing to look at the cage that held Bastila, I strode to my swoop bike and mounted. I only half heard the Bek mechanic's warnings as I sped off to the starting pit.

* * *

Danika fought hard to keep her composure. She didn't want the others to ask her what was wrong. She didn't know how she would answer if they did.

While Sabine had raced her first heat Danika had felt her anger clearly although she had mistaken it for her own at first. And then while waiting for the bike to be repaired Sabine had turned her head and caught sight of Bastila in her cage. The anger had flared to white-hot rage and Danika realized then that the emotion she was feeling was Sabine's and not her own. She had felt worry tinged by fear then and Sabine's rage had dissipated as if a tank of water had exploded. Her blond head had swiveled unerringly to Danika. Her blue eyes, barely visible from where Danika was seated, had widened, brightening like a glow light being turned on. And then something had clanged shut and Sabine ripped her gaze away from Danika. As she walked stiffly for her swoop bike Danika leaned back in her chair and shook.

What was going on? Sabine had been on the brink of finding out, Danika was sure. But the blond smuggler had shut herself off to it for reasons Danika could not fathom. She felt as if some part of her was missing and unthinking slipped a hand down to the hilt of her vibroblade. She smoothed her fingers over it and watched Bastila in her cage, doing her best to follow Sabine's example. There was nothing either of them could do about it for now.

A thought occurred to Danika and she turned to Carth. "Hey, Flyboy," she began, catching his attention away from the race and the Vulkar's prize with the nickname.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" he asked with a vaguely annoyed look.

Danika shrugged. "Seems to fit you. Hey, I wanted to ask you a question. Back after we first landed you mentioned that Sab and my names were familiar. Did you read our files or something?"

Carth's gaze shifted nervously. "Why do you ask?"

"Well I was thinking about how the _Spire_ was a fairly established ship. Even the hired mercs had been there for a while. Seems to me like Sab and I were the only newbies, and I was curious as to why." It was close enough to the truth, at least the way Danika figured it.

"You were both last-minute transfers," Carth replied, seeming agitated as he spoke. "The two of you, the Jedi contingent, and myself. They changed the _Spire_'s flight plan as well. It was supposed to patrol parts of the Inner Rim. Places the Republic had already secured." He halted suddenly and looked away from Danika. She understood then what he must have thought of her and Sab, why he'd been so closed off and quiet.

"The Jedi wouldn't tell anyone why they were there," Carth continued. "It was frustrating. They refused to listen to any of the officers. They made decisions that made no sense, including their flight plan." He stopped talking again and stared off into the space in front of him with a tough set to his jaw.

"Maybe you should ask Bastila about it when we get her back," Danika suggested.

"It wouldn't do any good," Carth said, almost growling. "They always dance around any subject they don't want to talk about. She won't give us a straight answer."

A little thrill went through Danika at Carth's words. He'd said 'we' not 'I'. She wondered when he'd begun to think of himself as part of the group despite his suspicions about the fall of the _Endar Spire._

She wondered what he thought of her.

The light in the starting pit turned green and was followed by a loud _ding!_ It broke through Danika's train of thought and swung her focus back to the track. Sabine had already taken off. She picked out the white and blue racing leathers easily.

* * *

I buried myself into the second heat. I lost myself in the twists and turns, in dodging oncoming riders as well as jockeying for position among the riders going the same direction as I was. I hit every single one of the booster plates and barely had to use any of the coolant on the accelerator engine.

And when I flew past the finish line there was a loud electric noise and the crowd cheered. The noise from them was like thunder. As I brought the swoop to a stop in the coordinator's pit it took me a moment to realize what it meant.

I had broken the track record. I had won.

I was immediately surrounded by a happy crowd of Beks. Two of them were the other riders for the Beks, but how the rest of them had gotten down to trackside that quickly was beyond me. I found their happiness contagious anyway and was soon swept up in the fervor. By the time things had calmed down somewhat Mission, Zaalbar, Carth, Hestra, Danika, and even T3 had gotten past the stern-faced guards at the track entrance. They were all smiling and in the case of my fellow crashees showing distinct signs of relief. Now that I had won the race half our battle was over. At least that's what we were thinking.

Things were never that simple of course. Just as the Duros in charge of the race got up to announce the winner Brejik stepped up next to the podium. I started getting upset before he spoke. I could just tell from the look on his smug little face that he was going to go and _make things difficult_.

"People, her me!" Brejik called out in what I assumed he thought was a majestic tone of voice. "Before the prizes for the so called champion of the Beks are presented there is something you must know; the winning rider cheated!"

"Oh he is _not,_" I growled half to myself. There was no way I was getting deposed by a half grown, pale excuse for a piece of humanity after I had been forced to _pilot a swoop_. I fingered my long dagger at my belt.

"Her swoop bike was using a prototype accelerator; clearly an unfair advantage!" Brejik continued. The blood was rising to his cheeks and he was clearly enjoying himself. I wanted to slap the smirk right off his face. "Because of this Hidden Bek treachery I'm withdrawing the Vulkar's share of the victory prize!"

There was a collective gasp from the audience, which nicely covered up my savage snarl, followed by a howl of outrage from the Duros. "You can't do this, Brejik! You know the rules; none is allowed to withdraw a prize once the race is over. This goes against all our sacred traditions!"

"You're traditions are nothing to me, you old fool!" Brejik howled back, his pale face red from excitement. "I am the wave of the future! If I want to withdraw the prize and sell this woman on the slave market myself, nobody can stop me!"

As he finished speaking I felt something similar to when I had sensed the Gamorreans in the Undercity. Again I felt as if there was another person living in my body. Again I felt as if I was larger than myself at the same time, as if my senses stretched far beyond my body. The feeling was gone in an instant and I was aware that Bastila had burst out of her force cage.

"I might have something to say about that Brejik!" she called out. I noticed that she had a distinct Inner Rim accent, the kind that marked most aristocrats of Coruscant.

"What?" Brejik shouted, his bright red face draining of blood in surprise. "Impossible! You were restrained by a neural disrupter collar! No one can break out of that!" He had his head turned to face Bastila and her cage, completely focused on what he considered an impossibility. I couldn't have asked for a better distraction.

Flipping my long dagger out of its sheath I threw it up lightly, snagged the tip between the thumb and forefinger of my left hand, cocked my hand back, and heaved it at Brejik's unarmored neck. It had sunk into his neck just above the collar bone to the hilt before anyone knew what was going on.

"Ha! That'll show you to frack around with me!" I shouted. It didn't matter that Brejik was already dead; I just enjoyed taking credit for the throw.

The entire coordinator's pit flew into chaos. All the minor gangs, mechanics, and technicians fled for the track entrance immediately. The Vulkars and Beks let them go, the crush of beings gave them both time to pull out their weapons of choice and, in the case of the Vulkars, allow them to activate their energy shields. They all pulled out stun batons or vibroblades; they liked to get in close. I responded by running up to Brejik's body and retrieving my long dagger. I was pretty deadly with the little thing.

Bastila applied a quick series of moves that contorted her slave girl clothes in ways that it shouldn't have been able to go to the guards on her cage and retrieved a pike from one of them. Several of the Vulkars with vibroblades veered off to try and take her down. I left her to it knowing that she was perfectly capable of defending herself.

A Rodian Vulkar with a stun baton rushed in at me. I dodged him easily and struck at the wrist of his armed hand with my free fist. There was a brief tingle from his energy shield as the blow connected but it was worth it, the Rodian cried out in pain and dropped the stun baton. I slashed in and up at his chest, the blade biting into his flesh between two of his ribs and tearing up into his heart. I braced my free hand against his shoulder in order to more easily wrench the dagger free.

Hestra, Carth, and T3 provided cover fire in order to keep the Vulkars busy while Zaalbar and members of the Beks rushed in with vibroblades. Several Vulkars fell before they reached the line of Beks, falling as if invisible strings had been cut. I knew as I traded blows with a Weequay Vulkar that it was Mission's work.

The battle was over fairly quickly and left only a few Beks dead. They were anxious to get to Gaddon who had insisted on coming to the track in person. Danika told them not to worry, we had everything we wanted.

Bastila ignored them as the Beks rushed out of the pit, searching around Brejik's body with a determined air. She was muttering to herself as we approached. "Maybe those bloody Vulkars will think twice before trying to keep a Jedi prisoner!" she said as she withdrew a peach bundle, a utility belt, and a thick double-bladed ligthsaber from Brejik's pack.

She had not failed to notice us approach. "And as for _you_-" her mouth dropped open when she saw us, her pale blue eyes wide. "Carth! You're alive!" She looked terribly vulnerable for an instant and I saw that she couldn't have been very much older than Mission. She looked over the rest of us, her gaze lingering over Hestra, Danika, and myself. "You're all alive! I thought... I thought I was the only one who made it off the _Endar Spire._"

"We can't stay here," Danika said. "Somebody's bound to squeal to the Sith soon. They'll be all over this place in a few hours."

"Quite right," Bastila said. She sounded like she was used to people doing what she wanted. "I must change first, and then we can go."

"Not into that, you're not," Danika said eying the bundle of peach colored cloth and leather in Bastila's arms. She opened her mouth indignantly but Danika cut her off before she could speak. "Don't you dare argue with me, Princess. There's no way we're going to get you past a bunch of angry Sith dressed in that. Sab's got some spare clothes you can have."

The teenage Jedi turned red in the face and clearly planned to protest, but before she could Mission appeared in front of her out of a haze of blue sparks. "Are you really a Jedi?" She asked critically, her headtails thrown over her shoulders speculatively. Bastila froze with her mouth partway open and blinked down at the blue Twi'lek. She'd clearly never had to deal with this kind of thing before.

"You can bother her later, Mission," I said. "Right now we have to get her changed. Who's got the rest of my gear and my pack?"

"I do," Danika said. She handed it out to me without my asking first.

I accepted it and the rest of my gear gratefully. "Okay," I said. "Let's go find a 'fresher, then."

Bastila was so bewildered by the whole thing that she let herself be led to a 'fresher. She managed to argue again when we got there but I won, finally just snatching the orange bundle out of her hands, thrusting a pair of my tunic and pants at her, and then forcefully shutting her in the 'fresher as I had done with Mission. She behaved almost the exact same way to. There was some pounding and shouting at first and then silence.

I stayed firmly blocking the door just to make sure. As I waited for her to finish the rest of the group discussed how we would get back up to the Upper City. Since the word about Bastila would be out very soon going all in one group would look suspicious, so we decided to split up. The only problem was we only had one set of papers.

"It's not a problem," Danika said. "They don't have a guard on the Lower City side of the elevator."

I pressed my lips together in a tight line. "Alright," I said. "But if any of us get into trouble we broadcast a short beep on the comlinks."

"Fine," Danika agreed. "Now how many groups do we want?"

Carth and Hestra joined in and we agreed to split up into two groups of three and one group of two. I was going with Bastila, Mission would go with Hestra and Carth, and Danika would go with Zaalbar and T3. By that time Bastila still hadn't come out of the 'fresher. We waited and silence and in that brief minute of quiet something occurred to me.

I knew Bastila. And I knew that just as Canderous had known me she knew me too.

* * *

To Be Continued...

14


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Quiet

"What is the plan for leaving Taris?" Bastila asked briskly. I bother didn't hiss at her to be quiet. There were no Sith patrols around for once.

"We don't have one yet," I said.

"You don't _have one yet_?" she practically shrieked. "What have you been _doing_ all this time?"

"We were busy looking for you and staying out of a Sith cage," I answered, reminding myself that she was still a teenager and using that reminder to keep my voice level.

"I see. Now that I'm back in charge of this mission, perhaps we can start doing things properly."

I stopped so abruptly that Bastila slammed into me from behind. Spinning around I grabbed her by the front of her borrowed tunic and growled, discovering that I was a few inches taller than her. "Now listen here, girlie," I growled. "Whatever mission you were in charge of back on the _Spire_, that's done now. The only thing we need to worry about right now is getting of this stinking rock and back to friendly space. You've been locked up this whole time, you don't know the territory or anything about what's been going on. I do. So if you want to get back to your precious Temple you'd better keep your head down and that prissy little mouth shut, got it?"

Bastila hung by her tiptoes pale faced. She managed to nod, her head bobbing sharply and her eyes clamped shut. I let her go and she plopped back down onto the duracrete. Without giving her a chance to recover I turned and started walking again. Several of the Upper City citizens were giving us odd looks but there still weren't any obvious Sith patrols around. I didn't want to give any of them a chance to show up.

The Jedi teenager stayed quiet for the rest of the walk back to the walk back to the apartment Hestra, Carth, Danika and I had stayed in before we'd descended into the Lower City. Very few of the apartments had been occupied before we'd left and we were hoping that hadn't changed in our absence.

It hadn't. The place was full to capacity now, especially with Mission and Zaalbar in the mix. I gave the little Twi'lek a calculating glance when I walked in the door and saw that she must have used the 'fresher as soon as she'd arrived. From the nervous glances she was shooting my way she probably didn't want a repeat of the incident back at the Bek base. Zaalbar looked clean as well, for which I was immensely thankful. Nothing smelled worse than unwashed Wookie. It was the kind of scent that... lingered.

Good smells filled the air. I sniffed actively at them and Danika handed me an extra-large flimsi-board box filled with take-out. I didn't look too closely at what it was but it tasted like some kind of bird with noodles and sweat and sour sauce, my favorite flavor. I took the proffered fork and immediately dug in, not even bothering to sit down. Mission and Carth stared wide-eyed at the spectacle. "Is she... _eating_?" Carth asked dubiously.

"More like inhaling," Mission replied with a snort.

"What?" I asked while chewing a large mouthful of noodles. I had to shove it all over to one cheek to speak at all clearly. "I'm hungry."

"She's always like that," Danika said as she sat down at the table with her own small box of food. "Just don't stop her from getting seconds or you'll likely to lose a few fingers."

"Huh. I bet," Mission said. "I've never known anybody but Zaalbar to eat like that."

"_Eat like what_?" Zaalbar asked. He was working on what looked like his third or fourth large sized box. I was somewhat disheartened to notice that he was standing and holding his food in the exact manner I was. Before I could think about it too much I became acutely aware of the saliva build up in my mouth and shrugged it off in favor of chewing.

Still looking quite abashed Bastila took a box of food for herself. I shoved my pack towards her with my foot and swallowed. "Your lightsaber's in the big pouch, down with the cleaning towels for my guns. You can probably hide it in your tunic if you want." She didn't say anything but grabbed the back and dragged it over to herself with a grateful air about her.

I was working on my fourth box and Zaalbar was on his sixth when the others began to discuss an escape plan. There were still four big boxes of food left, none of which was sweet and sour flavored. I assumed Mission had lobbied to buy them for Zaalbar since the young Wookie hadn't slowed down yet.

"Davik's got a ship called the _Ebon Hawk_," Mission said. "It's totally good for running the blockade."

"That's great, but we don't want to actually run the blockade if we don't have to," Carth said. "We need to get the access codes if we can."

"And we have to actually lay our hands on the ship," Danika added. "Where does Davik keep it, Mish?"

"In his estate," the teenager answered cheerfully. "It's a giant yacht ship."

Everyone stopped and stood stock still. Even Zaalbar and I froze.

"Wait," I said, my voice muffled by the last of my food. "It's in _space_?"

"Well yeah," Mission said innocently. "It's not going to fit down here is it?"

Danika and I exchanged disbelieving looks as I swallowed hard and then burst into a fit of brief coughing to help clear the resulting oversized lump in my throat.

"Great," Carth said, visibly drooping. "So all we have to do is get to a yacht in space to steal a starship."

Danika blinked at him briefly and then burst into a fit of laughter. I joined her rather hoarsely. Bastila sniffed at us, clearly in a sulking mood. "I don't see what's so funny," she mumbled.

We just laughed harder.

* * *

The next morning saw me renting the caffa machine that belonged to the green Twi'lek who sold energy shields in the hall. He had tried to tell me about all his great deals at first but I was not a terribly tolerant person this early in the morning and he was now huddled in the corner of his stand eying me warily. I on the other hand was sipping my cup of caffa with a highly satisfied air.

I saw somebody approached him from the corner of my eye. I turned my head slightly to observe a thin, seedy looking humanoid walk briskly up to the green Twi'lek, grab him by his left lekku, and pull him close so he could whisper in his ear while he kept an eye on me.

Still relatively happy that I'd gotten my caffa, the caffa maker in our apartment was broken, I left them to it instead of listening in. The chances it had to do with me were slim.

Rubbing his lekku with a pained look on his face the green Twi'lek turned to me cautiously. "Miss?" he called tentatively.

I turned slowly and gave him my most level, most intimidating stare. He gulped, but managed to continue on anyway. "Some guy just told me that Canderous wants to meet with you in the Upper City cantina."

Blinking once in surprise I fished a few ten credit pieces out of my currency pouch and laid them down on the table. "Thank you for your trouble," I said, and then added a fifty credit piece. "He really had no call grabbing your lekku like that," I added and then left him staring quite bewildered at the credit pieces on the counter.

I walked into the apartment to find the others just discovering our caffa maker was broken. "I'll fix it in a minute," I said to Danika, who glared bleary eyed at my full mug. "But first things first, that Mandalorian we met in the Undercity wants to meet with me in the cantina."

"You mean Canderous?" Mission asked. "He works for Davik."

"Really?" I asked as I handed my mug of caffa cautiously over to Danika who was creeping up on me like some amphibian predator. She snatched it away from me and guzzled eagerly.

"Yeah," Mission answered. "I was kinda wondering what he was doing down there."

I listened to Mission with half an ear as I carefully sidled around Danika to the caffa maker to fix it. I had a clear view when Bastila rose up from her plate of breakfast, cooked by Zaalbar it looked like, and turned right back into her old pompous self. "That's of no concern," she said haughtily. "For now we must go and see what this Mandalorian wants. Perhaps he may be of some use in obtaining the access codes and the ship."

"Yeah, I'll just get right on that," I replied as I tinkered with the caffa maker, my voice dripping with sarcasm. Bastila glared at me.

"Eh, she might be useful," Danika said. Her hair was still wild with sleep and her eyes were half lidded but she was highly satisfied. She clutched her cup of caffa like it was a precious stone. "I hear Jedi are better than lie detectors."

I snorted and chuckled in agreement. The caffa maker buzzed and sparked underneath my hand. "I don't think she should go anywhere," Carth spoke up carefully. "The Sith will be looking all over for her."

"It'd be fun to see 'em trip all over themselves," Mission said.

"But not very much to our advantage," I said. I fiddled with a few more wires and then closed the caffa maker. "There, the caffa maker's fixed. I agree with Carth."

"You can't be serious! I'm in charge of this mission!" Bastila cried indignantly.

Highly irritated I took several long strides to plant myself inches from Bastila. I looked her right in her pretty little eyes and shoved my face so close to her face that our noses were centimeters from touching. She paled immediately and froze in place. "You remember what we talked about earlier, Princess?" I asked calmly.

"Yes, ma'am," she squeaked.

"Good." I turned to the rest of the group with a stern look as well. "I'm going alone. I look nothing like Bastila so I shouldn't be fussed with." I waited for someone to say something but no one did. They were all busy looking from Bastila to me with a bewildered expression.

Well, everyone except for Danika. "Good luck, Blondie," she said.

"Thanks," I replied. I had been fully dressed when I'd gone to the green Twi'lek's stand for caffa so I left immediately. There really wasn't any point in delaying.

I had rearranged my gear somewhat. After returning to the apartment in the racing leathers I had concluded that I felt more comfortable in them than not. The jacket was so form-fitting that I had to go without my armor but I didn't mind that as much as I would have thought. And I had to admit looking at myself in the mirror that I was a striking figure in the outfit.

The ensemble showed off my gear much more than anything else I'd worn. My side pistol, my long dagger, and my vibroblade all made sharp contours to my outline now. So would my rifles, but I had left them behind this time. I wanted to make as little of a stir at the cantina as possible.

Unlike the Lower City cantina the bouncer for the one at the Upper City was just inside the door, not outside. He was a heavy-set human male and gave me more of an admiring stare than a hard one. He hardly even glanced at all my weaponry.

Canderous wasn't in the main room so I searched the side rooms until I found him. He was sitting near the back of one of the music rooms with his back to a corner. I smiled to myself; it was the easiest position to defend.

I smiled at the big Mandalorian as I slipped myself into the chair opposite him. It felt right, this meeting of just him and me. It felt like coming home.

He just sat and searched my face for a while, steel gray eyes looking sad. "You don't really remember me do you?" He asked.

My smile faltered and it felt as if the sun had disappeared behind a cloud. My smile faltered and my mind tipped on the brink of breaking apart again. I rubbed my face and calmed myself before I replied to him. "Not all the way," I answered quietly. Dropping my hand to my lap I looked up at him again. "All I know is that I'm sure of myself around you, that seeing you is like coming home. I don't want that to end."

"I have a plan," Canderous said. "I know where Davik's got the access codes to his ship, the _Ebon Hawk_, and I have access to his yacht. The only thing I'm missing is the codes to disable the Sith blockade. There's a good chance the ship can get past without them but there's also a good chance we'll get blown into space dust trying."

"You want me to break into the Sith base," I replied levelly, turning things over in my mind. I'd seen it once while I had been roaming about the Upper City with Carth. "I can do that," I continued, breaking into a broad smile as I did so. "I've even got the perfect droid to break past the security."

"I doubt it," Canderous countered. "The only droid capable of doing that was commissioned specially by Davik. If you go to Janice Nall and tell her Canderous sent you to collect it you should be able to get it with no problems."

I forced myself not to laugh as I explained. "I already have the droid Davik commissioned. I bargained with Janice for it, offered to spiff up another droid to the same specs." I did laugh then, at the face Canderous made.

The Mandalorian broke into a genuine smile then, the sadness disappearing for a while. "That's my girl," he said with a chuckle.

I blinked at his words, so familiar it made me ache. Something flashed against the back of my mind, a flash of skin, a sweet smell. Something stirred in the back of my mind as well, some mild alarm. It chased the other sensations away and remained.

But I knew. In yet another flash of dawning knowledge I knew that I was feeling Bastila as if she was on the other side of a thin filament of spider web. I also knew that somewhere, somehow, Canderous and I had been lovers.

Whatever it had been then, it was more than just that now.

Tears filled my eyes as I got up and went around to his seat. I enveloped his broad chest in a hug. "I love you," I told him hoarsely, tears falling freely. My heart seemed too big for my chest.

Strong, thickly muscled arms wrapped around me in an infinitely gentle embrace. "I love you, too," Canderous answered, his voice just as rough as mine.

"I don't ever want to lose you again," I whispered.

"Nothing can separate us now. We won't let it," he answered, his grip tightening a fraction.

We stayed like that for a long time.

* * *

Eventually Canderous and I did have to separate. He had to go put in a good word to Davik so that the Exchange boss would invite me up to his yacht. I hated being apart from him but I understood why and consoled myself with the knowledge that we'd be together again very soon.

There was an extra tick to my step as I walked back to the apartment. Everything seemed brighter, like the universe had reset itself just for me. I was still missing too many memories to count, stuck on a hostile Sith controlled planet, and connected somehow to a prissy Jedi Padawan, but it all felt like it was going to be just fine now. Everything was going to work out.

I had to subdue myself somewhat before I got to the apartment. I didn't want to be shining like a glow light with happiness when I got there.

"-still don't see how we're going to get the codes for the blockade," Carth was saying as I walked in.

Perfect timing, I thought. "As it just so happens they keep those in the base," I said. "And we've got just the droid to crack the security."

Everyone turned to me with a blank look on their faces. Mission was the first to recover. "You mean we get to break into the Sith base?" she asked, her eyes wide with excitement and her lekku utterly still in anticipation.

"Yup," I said with a grin.

Danika gave her slow, sly smile. "This ought to be good," she said.

Hestra sighed and shook her head. "I'm gettin' to ol' fer this shavit," she said.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," Danika told her.

"Ooohh, can I come?" Mission asked eagerly.

"No," Danika and I said at the same time.

Her happy expression quickly devolved into a scowl. "I did just fine in the Vulkar base!" she said.

"The Vulkars aren't half as well armed or trained as the Sith are. Besides, you do best with stealth and the Sith's helmets have infrared built in. And I'm not trying to be mean, but you don't follow orders well, Mission. We have to be in and out of there quickly; we have to work as a coherent team. You'll only slow us down."

Mission's face turned purple with anger, but before she could explode Zaalbar put a heavy hand on her shoulder. "_I'll be staying here too_," he said. "_And I don't want to have to worry about you_." The teenage Twi'lek didn't calm down exactly, but she didn't burst out into an angry tirade. Instead she stomped to the 'fresher and shut herself inside. Afterward there came a distinct click from the door and the activation panel turned red.

Bastila frowned, a strange mix of emotions on her face. With my heightened senses I could see the ache of an old hurt there and an obscure longing. "You could have been kinder," she said softly.

I eyed her carefully, not failing to notice how she avoided my eyes. "She's very stubborn," I said. "I don't have time to be kind to her, and anyway when I am she seems to just take it as leave to do whatever she wants. The last thing I need is to come back out of the base and find her corpse at the entrance."

Bastila did meet my eyes then and it was I who looked away. There was something hurt there and I couldn't help but feel like I'd been the one to put it there, as irrational as that was.

"Bastila, you should stay here too," Danika said. "Carth, Hestra, Sabine and I will go. Zaalbar, can you keep Mission here?"

"_She won't go anywhere,_" Zaalbar answered.

"Good. Did Canderous tell you when he'd be able to get you to the yacht?" Danika asked me.

"Tonight," I answered. "It won't take long for Davik to get wind that we broke into the Sith base, and he wants those codes just as much as we do. The only catch is that I'm going to be the only one who'll be able to go. Apparently Davik's not a very trusting person."

"Bes' ch'nce we'll git," Hestra said before anyone could object. She turned to glare hard at the others with her moss green eyes. "An' Sab's not one t' l've 'er mates b'hind." I don't know how she did it but that single statement seemed to brook all arguments.

"Alright," Danika said stiffly. "This means we have to get some black clothes. And Carth? You have to lose the jacket for a few hours. You wear that into the Sith base and they'll catch us before we even get back here." Carth gave her an offended look but didn't protest.

"You want to go shopping?" I asked Danika. "You're the best at picking sizes and we all can't go together anyway. We shouldn't be seen as a group before or after this thing." I didn't have to say the last bit for Danika, we'd pulled enough jobs together to know the drill. I'd said it for Carth's benefit.

Sure enough the Republic pilot gave me a calculating look as Danika ruffled my hair on the way out of the apartment. "You've done this kind of thing before, haven't you?"

"Yeah," I answered. "We used to be smugglers, but that wasn't always profitable during the war. And don't give me that look. We only pulled jobs on people who could afford it."

Carth didn't respond, only set his jaw in a hard line and eyed the closed door behind me. I realized with a start that the muscles and tendons in his face were arranged in a mask of worry and longing. I had thought that Danika's attraction to him had been one sided, but Carth was now proving me wrong. _Huh_, I thought to myself. I wasn't the only one falling in love.

* * *

To Be Continued...


	13. chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**Score**

During my time spelunking around the Upper City with Carth we had seen the Sith base only once. It was set up in a building that had formerly served as Taris' center of government. No one knew what had happened to all the politicians that had been in it at the time of the invasion and that had been the subject of many rumors afterward. I myself speculated that they were either dead or being held in the prison next door. The latter was much preferable as it meant that the Sith intended to simply subdue Taris and the former meant that they weren't going to leave the planet intact when they left. It didn't much matter in the long run anyway because we wouldn't know what the Sith intended until it was too late anyway.

The old government building had excellent security and had a large landing pad for its use only right out the front door. When Carth and I had passed it I had noted the arrangement they had guarding the front door and it was pretty serious. Two cam droids, four guards, and gun turrets that looked freshly bolted in. On top of all that word on the street was that the building had excellent locks with codes so complex only a droid could hope to break them.

While Danika went on her shopping trip Hestra and I went out to scout the base as best we could. I changed out of the blue and white jacket and back into my armor and we both went fully armed. We wanted to look as much like mercs as possible.

The government building/Sith base was several times larger than our apartment complex and was riddled with back doors, presumable to allow politicians to make discreet escapes. Most of them were covered by Sith guards, but we finally found one tucked away next to an alley shared with a few restaurants that they had overlooked. A dumpster blocked it, so we didn't see it at first. In fact the only reason we noticed it was because Hestra and I got into a bit of a discussion.

"You know you're going to have to say something eventually," Hestra said as we walked through the series of alleys. She was speaking in her clear Coruscanti accent for this, apparently not wanting anything she said misinterpreted.

"I know," I replied. "I just don't trust Bastila. I keep getting the feeling that she knows me from somewhere other than the _Spire._ Until I figure this out I think it's better if she thinks I'm clueless."

"Well she is a Jedi," Hestra said in a tone of reluctant agreement. "She probably does have something up her sleeve."

"Or gauntlet," I snorted. "I can't believe she actually wears that peach colored getup. Did you see that thing?"

"Yeah. She said it's supposed to be armor."

"Uh-huh. That thing wouldn't stop a dull vibroblade."

"Maybe it's special Jedi armor that'll stop lightsabers."

"Or maybe she just thought it looked- hey, what's that?" I paused at an alcove mostly inhabited by a large dumpster. The shadows between it and the wall of the alcove were strange.

"What?" Hestra asked, stopping just ahead of me. She came back and peered into the same shadows I was, studying it hard. "I don't see anything," she said finally.

I frowned and adjusted my eyes to see better in the gloom. The shadows by the dumpster brightened and sharpened, revealing the line of a door that hadn't been used in some time. A slow, sly smile spread on my lips. "I think we just found our way in," I said.

"Great," Hestra replied. "You know I don't think I'll ever get used to it when you do that."

"Oh, sorry," I said as I changed my eyes back to their normal round-pupil selves.

"You don't need to apologize. It's what you are. It's just a bit creepy, that's all. Now let's get back to the apartment."

"Yeah. Danika's probably back by now."

* * *

Danika had definitely gotten back from her shopping trip by the time Hestra and I arrived at the apartment. She took our news about the back entrance to the Sith base with distracted enthusiasm. Among her purchases was an EMP grenade, a medium armor vest and a new jacket for Carth, and a pair of leather pants and a jacket for me. They weren't as skin-tight as the racing leathers and allowed me to wear my armor vest underneath the jacket. I was thankful for those, but I wondered about the EMP grenade. Such things weren't terribly common, just one set off while a ship was in orbit could cause the life support to fail. I didn't ask where she got it. To be honest I didn't really want to know.

Carth put on the armor and jacket right there. He looked distinctly uncomfortable in both, especially the jacket. It just looked... wrong. I hadn't realized that I had gotten so used to seeing him in his eye-offensive orange jacket.

The last purchase Danika had made were black scraps of cloth to tie around our heads and the lower parts of our faces. It would disguise us just enough to fool face-scanning cameras and would distort our faces to organic eyes as well.

After everyone was geared up we huddled together near the door, unsure of how to say goodbye. Most of us hadn't known each other for more than a week or so.

"Good luck," Mission said. She'd finally unlocked the 'fresher and come out. She still looked fairly sulky but she wasn't angry anymore. I made a mental note to talk to her later.

"_Come back_," Zaalbar rumbled simply.

"We will," Danika answered with a flash of a smile.

Bastila stood next to the diminutive Twi'lek biting her lower lip gently. "Don't trust the Mandalorian," she said finally. She seemed to be speaking just to me.

"Don't worry, Princess," I said. "I'll watch my back."

There didn't seem to be much else to do other than leave after that. Danika took the lead as we walked out of the apartment complex. I nodded at the green Twi'lek as I walked by and he gave me a hesitant smile in return.

There was definitely a bug in the collective uniforms of the Sith. For the first time since they had consolidated their invasion people were being rounded up and questioned in the streets. I noticed that the heavily armed mercs in the crowd were being left alone for the most part. A horrendous oversight on the part of the Sith but lucky for us. We were left unmolested until we got near the ally where the back entrance was. Hestra and I led our little party, taking some side streets and narrow alleys in order to get to the dumpster entrance.

When we got there we quickly discovered that the dumpster's repulsor lift was broken and were forced to move it by hand. This was met with about twenty minutes of grunting and trying to direct each other. Finally the door was revealed, stained and looking like it hadn't been used in years. "Okay, Teethree, you're up," Danika said. The little droid wheeled up to the door, produced a mechanical arm from his body, and inserted it into the port just under the access panel. He beeped and buzzed to himself as it turned.

While T3 hacked the lock we fixed the strips of black cloth into place around our heads. Danika and I finished quickly having the benefit of experience on our side. Hestra was right behind, proving to be strangely adept at it. Danika had to help Carth with his; he had no idea what he was doing.

T3 beeped and whistled at us happily, retracting the mechanical arm into his body again. "He says he shut down all the other doors except for this one and that he disabled the alarms," I told the others.

"Good work, Teethree," Danika said as she swung her blaster rifle off her shoulder and into a ready position. "Let's get this party started."

T3 whistled sharply at her and I translated. "He says they have combat droids in there, so be careful. He also says that he'll lock the door after us and wait here until we come back."

Hestra grinned and patted the little droid on his head. "G'd droid," she said.

"Can we get his over with now?" Carth asked a little nervously.

I laughed. "Sure thing, Hero. Thanks for the warning Teethree." I activated the panel by the door and strode in, slugthrower leveled with the butt against my shoulder and the safety off. The hallway was clear, so I waited for the others before moving on. "Hey, Dani, you think you can track down those codes?" I asked.

There was a pause and a deep intake of breath before Danika answered. "Yeah, there this way," she said. She went down the hallway opposite the one I was facing so I turned to follow her.

"Wait, how can Danika find the codes?" Carth asked. Hestra and I glanced at each other and the veteran shrugged. Apparently it was my turn to explain.

"Danika's got this ability," I said. "She can find things, just by concentrating on them. We don't know how it works, but it does. She's never been wrong before."

Carth's eyes bugged huge. "You mean we're following her _feelings _to the access codes?" he asked incredulously. "I thought only Jedi could do that!"

"Heads up!" Hestra called in her perfect Coruscanti accent. She fired past Danika's shoulder into a group of Sith ahead. We all dived for what little cover there was.

There was no room in my head to think about what Carth had said after that. We had to fight our way tooth and nail through the base, some of the soldiers must have been in the corridors when T3 had locked the internal doors and others had hacked around the locks. It seemed like they were all converging on us at the same time.

Progress was slow but Danika managed to lead us to an elevator near the end of the base. It was guarded by a gun turret which swiveled and locked onto us as soon as we came into view. I skidded to a halt when I saw it knowing there was no way I would be able to back-peddle out of the way in time. Danika was faster, she pulled her EMP grenade, activated it, and threw it with a speed I hardly knew she was capable of. It exploded just before the turret could fire, emitting an expanding globe of blue sparks. Everything that it touched fizzed and shorted out, including the lights in the ceiling.

When the EMP dissipated Danika ran to the turret, pried open a panel, and proceeded to destroy its innards with her rifle. As she did so I eyed the damage critically. "So," I said. "Now how do we get the elevator to work?"

Danika let off her destruction of the turret to study the elevator herself. "Huh," she said. "I didn't think of that." She turned and raised a dark eyebrow at me. "You're the engineer, Sab. You want to take a look at it?"

"Oh, I was going to," I replied. "I just wanted to point out the hole in your logic."

"Without which you'd be crispy bits by now."

"Cu' th' cha'er an' jus' fix th' damn thin'," Hestra snapped over her shoulder. She must have felt cornered, without the elevator working the hall was a dead end and thus it was a very bad spot to be cornered.

Suppressing my urge to wittily reply back I went up to the panel next to the elevator, removed it, and started picking through the wires. The power had shorted out, but it was only minor and I was easily able to re-route a few wires to bypass it. The elevator whirred to life soon after, but I continued digging through the wiring anyway. "Frack," I spat when my hand brushed some burned-out circuitry. I let loose a string of expletives and disentangled my hands from the wires, closing the panel when I was done.

"Does it work?" Danika asked. "You were using some pretty strong language there."

"Yeah, it works," I answered. "But it'll only be reliable for two or three runs. We have to make this trip as quick as possible."

Danika pressed the panel with a picture of the arrow pointing down. The elevator dinged as the door slid open. All of us crowded in together, pointing our weapons carefully at the ceiling. The elevator did its job with minimal sounds of protest but I tensed anyway, reminded starkly of the elevator in the Vulkar base. I eyed the control panel next to the door and found it very simple. Emergency stop, a control panel to get at the wiring, and a single floor indicator. A feeling like an icy finger traveled down my spine and I shifted uneasily, gripping my slugthrower tight.

The elevator shuddered and came to a stop, the floor indicator blinking to green. It seemed as if the very air around me darkened as the door _whooshed _open, making my stomach flip over.

Beyond the elevator was a single room. It was large and opulent, the far wall covered in banks of monitors and one giant holoscreen. It had probably been the security control room before the Sith invasion. Now it held only a single chair, a sleep couch, and a very aggravated looking Sith Lord.

He was tall with short, dirty black hair and dark eyes. He didn't have a lightsaber that I could see, but that meant little. We'd all heard about the terrible things a Sith could do with just the Force. They said a Sith could even wipe your brain clean and take away your very identity.

"Who are you to disturb my meditation? You'd better have news about that little Jedi twit, because if you don't I'll- wait." The Sith cocked his head at us and paused, a space of time during which Danika and I carefully eased out of the elevator while Hestra jammed the door shut part-way to give her and Carth some cover. I raised my slugthrower to my shoulder, fitting it into the sweet spot just above my arm pit and ducked my head down to line up the sight. I took careful aim at the Sith, at his head and neck. The rest of him was covered in opulent silver colored armor that was nonetheless segmented so that he could use a sword with ease. He didn't seem to notice however. He just stood there, his gaze moving slowly from Danika to me.

"Who would have known?" The Sith said slowly. "The Force is strong in the two of you. Very strong. Who knew that _two_ Force Adepts could be found on this little backwater planet? Heh, my Master will surely grant me my lightsaber after I kill the two of you."

Danika had switched from her blaster rifle to her vibroblade and she activated it now, the low humming noise loud in the otherwise quiet room. She gave it a twirl to loosen her wrist and to show that she knew how to handle it. "They didn't even give you a lightsaber? Wow, you must really suck." Danika's voice was full of mirth and I didn't need to look at her to know that her face was twisted in a mocking smile.

The Sith's face twisted into an expression of insulted rage and he charged wildly at Danika. I fired at him, the sound of the slugthrower loud enough to ring in my ears in the small space. I missed on the first shot, but the second grazed the back of his neck. It checked him enough that he jerked and backed off from Danika slightly, giving her just enough room to draw a small dagger and drive it into his body where his torso armor connected with his leg armor. He cried out and struck at Danika with his blade, forcing her to let go of the dagger and twist away from him. Hestra fired then, a single shot that pierced the man through his eye. He collapsed on the spot, his face frozen in an expression of surprised pain. There was a strange outrushing feeling as he died, as if some of the air in the room left with him.

Everyone paused, weapons trained on the corpse as if it would rise up any second. I found myself the one to break the spell this time. "I guess he really did suck," I said.

Danika snorted, switching her vibroblade off and sheathing it. "I was just trying to goad him, but I don't mind being right." She stepped over to the man, retrieved her dagger, and cleaned it on the dead Sith's skin before sheathing it.

"Let's just get those launch codes so we can get out of here," Carth said.

"Don't get your undies in a bundle, Flyboy, they're right here," Danika said as s he knelt in front of a strongbox on the floor. It was locked, but that was no barrier for Danika. She cracked it quickly and opened it, snatching up the datapad within it and stuffing it in between her armor and her body. Even while she was busy with the strongbox I went and crammed myself into the elevator with Carth and Hestra. After Danika had joined us Hestra released the doors and gave the elevator the command to go down. It did so shakily, screeching a bit as the gears finally got moving.

There was a tense quiet in the elevator as it took us back to the main level. I knew everyone, or at least Danika and I, were thinking about what the Sith had said before we'd fought him. He'd called Danika and I Force Adepts. I wasn't familiar with the term but I knew what it meant. It meant that Danika and I had the same potential as any Jedi or Sith, that we had the same connection they did to their mysterious Force. I accepted that knowledge and then stuffed it way down, hoping that none of the others would bring it up any time soon.

As luck would have it the hallway just outside the elevator was clear, though the hallways after it weren't. We had to fight all the way back to our exit and barricade ourselves as best we could there while Hestra banged on the door and shouted at T3 to get it open. She was at it for a good thirty seconds or so before it finally _whooshed_ open. T3 razzed at us irritably from beyond it.

We retreated through the door one by one, those of us still inside providing cover fire for the ones ducking out. Danika was the last one through and was forced to jog backwards out the door while she provided cover fire for herself. She only stopped when T3 closed and locked the door.

I unwrapped my head covering and stuffed it into one of my jacket's pockets. Only then did I put the safety back on my slugthrower and sling it over my shoulder. I did a quick once over of myself as the others followed suit in order to make sure that everything was in order and didn't look like I'd just stepped out of a firefight.

"Okay, let's split up," Danika said. "Hestra and Sab, you guys take Teethree. Carth and I will take the market route back."

I nodded at Danika, stepped close, and proffered my hand and forearm. She stepped forward and gripped my arm while I did likewise. "Stay out of trouble, Smartass," I told her affectionately.

Danika flashed a quick smile at me. "Likewise, Blondie," she replied. We let go of each other and the groups split up, taking off down the alley in opposite directions. I had an odd lightness in my heart as Hestra and I stepped out onto the calm-ish main street. It took me a moment to realize the reason for it.

We had done it. We had broken into the Sith base, stolen the launch codes, and made it out alive with our identities intact. Davik would hear about both this and my success at the race and would send Canderous to recruit me. I would board the Exchange boss' yacht with him and we would steal the _Ebon Hawk_, come get the others and all of us would finally be able to leave Taris behind. The mad dash for survival was almost over and maybe when it finally was I would be able to let my guard down and allow my mind to unravel the truths from the lies. Maybe I would finally be able to remember who I really was.

Just thinking about it made me want to cartwheel down the street in joy. I restrained myself though, allowing a half-smile to tug the corner of my mouth upward as Hestra and I walked past patrols of Sith clueless to what we had just done. It was a good, good day.

* * *

To Be Continued...


	14. Chapter 14

Gone For Good Chapter 14; Lapdog

**Chapter 14**

**Lapdog**

I slept well the night after Danika, Hestra, Carth, and I broke into the Sith base. It was the first time since the attack on the _Endar Spire_.

Danika was fairly unimpressed with my mood in the morning, sipping on her caffa and poignantly ignoring me as I hummed contentedly to myself. Hestra and Zaalbar teamed up to cook breakfast while the rest of us looked on with varied interest. Bastila was cleaning her lightsaber, the different parts spread over the table. Mission was busy examining T3's insides while he beeped commentary at her.

After breakfast I stepped out the door with a fresh cup of caffa to visit the Twi'lek who sold energy shields to see if Canderous had left a message with him. Before I could walk down the hallway however I was approached by a rough looking man who wasn't wearing any colors indicating a gang affiliation. He was taller than me by about half a foot but I managed to give him a level stare anyway. "Are you Sabine Thade?" he asked, studying me from head to toe. I was wearing the racing pants, my armor vest with the new loose leather jacket over it, and all my equipment save my slugthrower rifle and blaster rifle. If I had a slimmer frame it would have painted a very contradictory picture but I had never been called petite like Danika had. Despite having blond hair and blue eyes I looked more dangerous than beautiful at the moment.

"Who's asking?" I asked, taking a casual sip of my caffa.

"Canderous Ordo," he replied confidently. "He wants to meet with you in the east side cantina."

"East side huh? I didn't know there was a cantina over there." I kept my voice and stance confident, cool. Talking with Exchange personnel was like negotiating with a rabid kath hound. One hint of weakness and they'd rip you to shreds. I'd had the good fortune to have a minimal amount of content with them over the years.

"That's because it's very exclusive. Nobody goes there except by invitation." The man matched me in confidence and cool. He slung his thumbs through his belt in a deceptively casual manner but I did not fail to notice that his right hand rested lightly next to his blaster pistol.

"So how do I find this exclusive cantina?"

The rough looking man smirked. "You'll know it when you see it," he said with a chuckle. He then turned and swaggered out.

I snorted softly to myself. I'd heard that phrase before and it rarely meant that things were as clear as it lead you to believe. It was usually a fairly accurate statement unfortunately. The destination usually was quite obvious when you knew what you were looking for. It was knowing what you were looking for that was the trick.

Danika stepped out of the apartment just then, her gaze focused down the hall on the way the man had gone. "Exchange, huh? You just get your invitation to the ball?"

"Looks like it," I answered. "This should be _tons _of fun."

Danika grinned evilly at me. "Hey, _you're _the one who insisted you'd have to go alone."

"Oh, I know, believe me. I'm sure I'll be paying for that later."

"Yeah, well you should go collect the rest of your gear. Wouldn't want to keep them waiting."

I snorted into my cup of caffa and turned to walk back into the room to follow her advice. Danika followed me inside and plunked into one of the empty chairs. I proceeded to sling my rifles over my shoulder and settle down briefly to make sure everything was in place in my pack.

"Watch your back around Davik," Mission said. "He's got a pretty nasty rep around the Lower City."

"Thanks, Kiddo," I said. "Anything specific? That's pretty standard for Exchange personnel."

"He likes to set up traps," Mission said. "And he's pretty strict. He killed one of his enforcers just because he was a day late collecting protection money. Got him by setting loose a rakghoul in his apartment. Nobody knows how he got it, but it sure did a number on the enforcer."

"Right," I said as I made a sympathetic face for the dead enforcer. Being torn to shreds by a rakghoul was not a pleasant way to go. "So check out the turf before I step onto it and don't ever be late. Got it." I stood up and slung my pack over my shoulder next to my rifles.

Everyone saw me off, some with lower levels of enthusiasm than others. "Keep your head on straight, Blondie," Danika said with a straight face as I left.

"Stay out of trouble, Smartass," I replied with an equally straight face.

And that was it. I turned and walked out of the apartment complex and out into the daylight. It was a bright day and when I looked up I even saw some fluffy white clouds. My thoughts drifted up past them even as I looked back down to the streets of Taris. Somewhere up there was a yacht that held a ship with my name on it. The Sith blockade was up there too, along with whatever remnants remained of the _Endar Spire. _I wondered how long the snooty Tarisians would leave it up there. I also thought about Davik Kang and wondered if he was a Tarisian native and just how pissed off he would be about losing his ship. Pretty steamed, I thought. He was the boss for an entire planetary branch of the Exchange; you couldn't get much better than that. He wouldn't take kindly to having one of his ships stolen right out from under his nose. The only question now was what he would do about it.

Only time would tell.

* * *

I hummed to myself as I walked around the Upper City's east sector. It was a silly little drinking song I'd picked up in some cantina or another and the tune was nice enough.

_I'll drink my way from here to the Outer Way,_

_Betch'a I can make it all the way. _

_Doesn't matter if you're short or tall,_

_I toast to you all. _

_I'll drink you under the table,_

_My favorite drink is Tarisian Ale. _

_Nobody's got the better of me yet,_

_My friends have never lost a bet. _

_If you think you can pass me by, _

_Step right up, you're welcome to try._

_I've seen them all come and go,_

_Some drink fast, some drink slow._

_It doesn't matter because in the end,_

_I'll never be the one to bend._

_So come on down and drink with me,_

_It'll make all your worries flee._

It took me a while to find the cantina and I saw immediately why the Exchange thug had told me I'd know it when I saw it. It was tucked away in a dead end alley that was obviously little used. Security cameras were hidden in the dingy area just under the roof. I stopped humming immediately and walked right up to the door. The speaker next to the door buzzed and a hostile voice burst forth in Rodian. "What you want?" It asked.

"I'm expected," I answered, my voice holding the same hostile tone as his.

The Rodian proceeded to spit out a long string of insults to my bloodline, sexual orientation, and future offspring. Before he could finish he was interrupted very rudely, the tirade was cut off by a squeal of pain. The door opened soon after, revealing a very amused Canderous. I could see why, the Rodian who had previously been acting so tough was squirming on the floor and pleading in a voice several octaves higher than normal.

"You sure took your time getting here," Canderous said gruffly. To everyone here we had never met before.

"Blame your message boy," I answered just as gruffly. "He wasn't terribly forthcoming with an address."

After the posturing was over Canderous led me into the cantina. It was clearly maintained for Exchange personnel only, the crowd within was diverse in species and gender, but very similar in other ways. They all wore very similar scruffy clothing and most of them were strung out on one kind of drug or another. The remaining portion was very drunk. The air was permeated with the smell of spice and sweat.

Canderous and I settled down at a table nestled in a small side room that was clear of any other patrons. It smelled marginally better than the rest of the cantina. "Good work," Canderous said. "You did quite a number on the Sith."

I grinned broadly at the Mandalorian. "It was kind've fun to watch them flip out." Even as I bantered jovially with Canderous I thought back to what the Sith Lord had said before we'd killed him. He'd called Danika and I Force Adepts. It didn't take a genius to figure out that it meant that we could use the Force like a Jedi could, and something about that really worried me. It threatened to tear apart my mind by the seams, so I shoved it down as I had just after I had heard it.

"Davik wants to bring you to the yacht as soon as possible," Canderous continued. If he picked up on my inner turmoil he neatly turned a blind eye. "He's getting nervous and wants those launch codes before the Sith get too trigger happy."

An orange Twi'lek brought drinks, setting a Tarisian Ale down in front of me. From the smell of Canderous' drink he had ordered Corellian Whisky. I sipped at my drink appreciatively. "He's waited this long, he can wait a bit longer," I said with a smile.

"My thoughts exactly," Canderous smiled back and my stomach did a flip. I had initially just been planning on dinner, but I wondered just how long we could stretch this out. It could be the last time we could be alone together for a long while.

As it turned out Canderous had a better sense of self-control than I did. Even as I ate nerf steak I wanted to leave and go somewhere with him, anywhere where we could be alone together. I just wanted to sit next to him and feel him breathing with me, to know that he was _there. _I'd lost him once even though I couldn't remember it; I didn't ever want to be without him again.

After dinner we had one more drink and exchanged news. Through this I discovered just how patched my knowledge was, it was as if I had gotten it all secondhand. I didn't like to dwell on that, mostly because it made my mind squirm. Canderous picked up on that and smoothly changed subjects whenever it came up. The way he did it gave me a thrill every time, he knew me well.

"We should get going," Canderous said as he finished off his drink. "Davik doesn't like to be kept waiting and I don't want to antagonize him early."

"Right," I replied. "So how do we get to his yacht anyway?"

"He's got a private landing platform on the edge of the city. The Sith turn a blind eye to it because it's not big enough for any of their vehicles. There's also the fact that they confiscated all vehicles capable of getting past the blockade." Canderous stood as he talked and I followed suit. We walked out of the cantina with very few eyes following us; nobody wanted to give offense to Davik's head enforcer. As we passed the guard who had sworn so proficiently at me he cringed and cowered. I gave him a level stare as we passed to enforce my stance but I needn't have bothered, he wasn't even looking in my direction.

The walk out to Davik's landing platform was decent and took me to the very fringes of what I had explored. The Upper City kept going for a while, but not much. I had heard it been described as the 'Coruscant of the Outer Rim' but I wasn't that impressed. It didn't' have a tenth of the variety and sheer scope that the Republic's capitol did.

Canderous had been right, Davik was impatient. A pilot was waiting by a ship already primed for takeoff when we arrived at the landing platform. He was looking distinctly bored and perked up when he caught sight of us.

The interior of the craft was plush and well-maintained. As the ship took off I appreciated that, the repuslar lifts moved it smoothly off the ground. The pilot was good; he turned the nose of the ship smoothly into an ascending angle. I sat back in my seat, enjoying the feeling of the vehicle escaping Taris' gravity. As much as I liked being dirtside it was good to have the wide freedom of the dark spaces between planets before me once again.

Davik had no idea what he was getting into. He probably thought it would be easy to get me to give him the launch codes. I smiled to myself at the thought; he was in for a very nasty surprise.

* * *

Danika sat cross legged on her bunk with her arms folded and glared at the back of Bastila's head. The teenager was in a similar position in the only clear space in the apartment, on the floor in the corner. Her hands rested gently on her knees. She'd been like that since Sabine had left and for some reason it was deeply irritating Danika.

The rest of the group picked up on the black-haired smuggler's mood change fairly quickly and had made various excuses to leave. The only ones remaining were Mission and Zaalbar, mostly at the Wookie's insistence. He had meant it when he'd told Sabine the blue Twi'lek wasn't going anywhere.

Danika couldn't figure out why Bastila could annoy her so by just _sitting there. _That in turn was frustrating her, and the more frustrated she got, the angrier she got. Finally when Sabine had been gone for nearly four hours, Bastila turned her head, opened one eye, and studied Danika critically. "It's called meditation," she said in her perfect Coruscanti accent. "And it's very difficult for me to do it while you're boring a hole in my head with your eyes."

"Why are you meditating?" Danika asked, her gaze unwavering.

"Because it helps me clear my mind. It is also calming. You might benefit from it yourself." Bastila turned her head away from Danika and resettled, effectively cutting off further conversation. That irritated Danika worse than the meditating had, so she huffed and stood up before she strangled the young Jedi.

"I'm going to go find Carth and Hestra," she told Mission and Zaalbar.

"Tell them to pick up some sweets," Mission said.

"_And food!"_ Zaalbar added.

"Will do," Danika replied curtly. She didn't pause to take any further requests as she slipped out the door. T3 beeped at her mournfully as she went, probably saying something about Sabine. The little droid had pined for her ever since she'd left to go to Davik's yacht.

Danika had to admit she was missing the blond smuggler as well. She had been a solid partner for many years and the only person that Danika could fully trust after the old crew of the _Urusai_ had died.

Thinking about the smuggler ship made Danika ache inside. She didn't know what had happened to it after the Republic Armed Forces had seized it. She hoped it was being put into use as a cargo hauler or something like that instead of being left in a warehouse somewhere or stripped down for parts. She'd been through a lot with that ship. She'd been through a lot with Sabine on that ship as well.

Sighing, Danika reflected that missing her lost ship and her absent partner was better than getting irritated with Bastila. She just took everything in that haughty, holier-than-thou attitude and for some reason Danika couldn't deal with that, not like Sabine could.

As she thought about it Danika realized that Sabine was the only one who could intimidate the young Jedi. Bastila had shrunk back from the blond smuggler and called her _ma'am_ for Force sakes... What was it with those two?

Something stirred in the back of Danika's mind, making her stop in mid-stride and cock her head at the sky. There was something up there, she could feel it. Something that didn't have very good intentions for her...

* * *

High above Taris a man glared down the viewport of his flagship and felt something stir in the back of his mind as well. Strange, he had not felt that particular sensation in nearly a year. Could it be?

No. She was dead. They had not lied about that, he was sure of it.

* * *

To Be Continued...

8


	15. Chapter 15

Gone For Good Chapter 15; Mover

**Chapter 15**

**Mover**

The shuttle shook gently as it hooked into the airlock of Davik's yacht ship. The pilot looked slightly nervous and Canderous by contrast was wearing a mask of calm, his eyes alert. I knew my own face was wearing an approximation of the same look. I settled my mind as well, waiting to see what would come instead of trying to anticipate it and panic.

"Okay, well here we are..." The pilot said. He made no move to get up.

"Are you going back to the surface?" I asked him in a neutral tone of voice.

"I'm not picking anyone up, so yeah," The young man answered. He had a pleading sort of look in his eyes and a tenseness around his mouth and eyes that suggested he was waiting for a reprisal from me. He was going to be highly disappointed.

"Hmm, well then I'll just get out of your hair then. Can't keep Davik waiting..." I slung my pack with all my spare clothes and gear over my shoulder and made my way over to the airlock. It opened obligingly when I palmed the activation panel, revealing a brightly lit passage to the next airlock. I hesitated a moment before walking forward, gathering myself for what was to come. Canderous stepped up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder, dropping it extra-hard so that I would feel it through my armor. I took comfort from the solid Mandalorian at my back and continued forward.

There was a moment when I thought the heavy door leading to Davik's yacht would not open, but it did. The anteroom beyond held Davik himself.

Davik was not an impressive man as humans defined such things. He was older, somewhere in his mid to late forties with a belly that had to be stuffed a bit to fit inside his suit of purple armor. It was a high quality piece but ridiculously showy and gave away much more of his personality than he likely knew. This was also reflected in his immaculately cut and groomed hair which had much more silver in it than black. His eyes were small, shrewd, and hued in a very common shade of dirty blue. He looked me over with those eyes in a way that made me instantly dislike him. I would enjoy stealing his ship out from underneath his nose.

Canderous stepped from behind me and positioned himself just off to my right and in front of me. It was a subtle threat, at least how I perceived it. I could see the tense muscles in his neck and head indicating he was ready for a fight. I smiled to myself inside; he did not like his 'boss' checking me out.

"Canderous, always nice to have you back," Davik said. His voice was rick and deep, he'd likely made a killing at the dating game when he was younger. He had a hard-to-place accent as well, not quite Outer Rim, but not Mid Rim either. I wondered if he had grown up on Taris or not.

"Well this is unusual. Canderous it's not like you to take partners. You're getting soft." The new speaker stepped in from a door that led to the interior of the yacht. He was a human male, much shorter than average and clearly attempting to make up for it. He wore a lot of gear, most of it designed to make onlookers think he was much less heavily armed than he really was.

"Watch yourself, Calo," Canderous growled back. "You may be the newest Kath hound in the pack, but you aren't top dog yet."

Calo tensed, his hand moving for the blaster on his hip. The move was not lost on Davik, who quickly stepped in to intervene.

"Enough!" He said, his chest actually puffing out a few degrees. "I won't have my two best men killing each other; it's not good for business. Besides, I'm sure Canderous has a good explanation for this."

"This is a special case Davik," Canderous said, pointedly ignoring Calo. "I ran into someone the Exchange might want to recruit. You may have heard something of her exploits already."

I knew the whole thing was a farce. Davik already knew who I was and had asked Canderous to get me personally so that he could get the launch codes out of me. But he didn't want me to know that, so he had to play the game. Inside my head I smiled to myself. Davik had no idea that Canderous had partnered up with me.

"Ah, now I recognize you, Sabine Thade," Davik said. "You're performance in the race was very impressive, just as it was in the rather heated battle afterward."

"It's good to finally meet you, Davik," I said. He smiled like the cat that ate the canary.

"You know Canderous was right," he replied. "The Exchange is always looking for new people with... extraordinary abilities. With a recommendation from Canderous and a thorough background check, you could become one of us."

I smiled back, a cold facade that I knew Davik wouldn't see through. "Sounds good," I told him.

* * *

Bastila sat in the quiet apartment, unable to meditate. It had taken some time to convince the others that she would stay put once alone but she had finally managed it.

It was the first time the young Jedi had been alone since crashing on Taris. The drugs that the Vulkars had given her had finally cleared out of her system but she still felt rung out and weak. She wouldn't let the others know she felt this way but in private she could give some attention to them. She had intended to go into a light healing trance but found herself unable to center herself for it. She didn't know why.

_No_, Bastila thought as she closed her eyes as if from pain. _I know why._

This was the hardest thing she had ever done. Despite everything her old master had done, to her personally and the galaxy, Bastila felt that the current deception was wrong. At least the past two attempts had not dragged civilians into the mess.

Well, they weren't exactly civilians, save for Mission and Zaalbar, and Bastila barely counted them as such. But it didn't matter. They had not been directly involved in the events that had brought the deception into place and therefore shouldn't have to get mixed up in it. She wasn't just risking herself and a handful of soldiers this time, she was risking a whole host of other beings, and she didn't know how she felt about that. She had accepted the Masters' answer at first; that the welfare of the whole galaxy depended on what she did now. But now, having been drugged, beaten, and caged. Having seen how much life Hestra, Carth, Mission, and Zaalbar had in them she wondered. Was it really worth it? Was any of it truly, undoubtedly worth it?

* * *

It was dark in the room. The yacht's lights had been dimmed for the night cycle.

As I lay there on my bunk I reflected how much of my life over the recent years had been spent in ships, away from the wind of a planet's atmosphere, away from open sky instead of open space. It made me sad and my soul seemed to weigh heavy on my chest with it. It was like someone had placed the weight of a hundred ships on my shoulders. It took me a minute to trace that feeling not to sadness, but something else entirely.

I felt tired.

A soft knock came at my door and I had to smile despite myself. There was one thing I would never get tired of. I swung myself up off my bunk and threw my guns over my shoulder followed by my pack. There wasn't going to be any quiet reconnaissance before the strike for this one. Davik's background check would reveal that I was a Republic soldier fairly quickly and then things would get very interesting after that. If Canderous and I were to find the codes to get past the security for the _Ebon Hawk _we would have to do it very quickly. There would be no time for a second chance.

The door opened on its own as I made sure all my equipment was in order. Canderous walked in and briefly observed the room before settling on me. I was still wearing the clothes I had arrived in. He chuckled at the sight. "You didn't used to be this shy," he said.

"It's not about being shy," I replied. "I'm just not going to give anyone watching that particular pleasure."

Canderous chuckled some more while his eyes traveled the length of my body in a particular suggestive matter. I shuddered in response and gestured impatiently at the door, blushing hard. The big Mandalorian left the room with a slight swagger in his step. I followed, resisting the urge to growl at him. He seemed to be very pleased to be more or less alone with me.

I let Canderous lead the way since he was the one who knew the yacht best. I only had a basic understanding of the layout thanks to the tour Davik had taken me on earlier. I found myself getting irritated all over again as I thought back to it. He'd practically waved the _Ebon Hawk_ in my face! Not to mention that he'd taken the time to show me all of his basic security measures. He was very confident about the whole thing and had had his chest puffed out the entire time. I had to snicker at that. Davik wasn't nearly as good as he thought he was, and neither was his security. This would be a cake walk.

The only tricky bit would be finding the access codes to the _Ebon Hawk_. Those wouldn't be stored in any system I could readily hack into. We'd have to actually find the guy who piloted the thing for Davik.

"Do you know where Davik would keep this guy?" I asked Canderous.

"Somewhere he could keep an eye on him," Canderous replied softly, his voice just low enough so that it couldn't be overheard by any listening devices that may have been about in the corridor.

I snorted. "Yeah, like _where_?"

Canderous shot me an annoyed look over his shoulder. "Just keep quiet and follow me," he said.

I heaved a sigh that was clearly audible to him and did as he had told me. I didn't like not knowing where I was going and although I remembered my feelings for the Mandalorian part of me still didn't fully trust him. I would have preferred that Danika had been there leading me with her finding ability. That at least I was familiar with.

The yacht was quiet as Canderous and I walked its corridors. We left the guest wing without a second's hesitation on the Mandalorian's part. That made me twitch a bit. Davik had been very clear of the consequences of my leaving the guest wing before the background check was over. And it's not like security just wouldn't know, there were cameras everywhere. I guessed Canderous might have some pull over the staff, though, and that was why he was so calm. That or maybe he thought that we would be so quick about our business that it wouldn't matter.

The first place we checked around was the hangar bay, which we couldn't get into. It needed access codes, which we didn't have but didn't need. I could hack the door easily, that is if I wanted to draw more attention to us than there was already.

The next place we checked was the same area where Canderous' room was, as well as Calo's. We did not find the pilot there either.

"We're running low on time," I hissed edgily.

"I know," Candreous replied, his tone betraying only a hint of anger.

I clamped my teeth together to keep from snapping back a reply. As Canderous left the housing wing, a thought suddenly occurred to me. "Hey, do you think Davik could be keeping him in a cage or something?" Mission had told me about Davik's employee policy before I had left the apartment, so it was entirely possible that the _Hawk's_ pilot had done something to warrant Davik throwing him in a cage somewhere since then.

Canderous stopped and turned to grin at me. "_That's_ my girl," he said with a grin. I returned the gesture as he turned back and took a different hall.

The big Mandalorian stopped in front of a door in a far corner of the hall, right next to the control cluster for security. I did not like that at all, and as Canderous worked on the door's access panel I slung my regular blaster rifle off my shoulder. I would have preferred my slughthrower, but I didn't want to risk putting a slug through the ship's hull. Blaster bolts were likely to do a lot less damage.

"I'll cover the security booth," I said to Canderous. He grunted to me in reply.

As soon as he had the door open a mechanical shriek came from within, quickly followed by a barrage of blaster bolts. I was happy that I was far enough from the open door to be able to avoid all possible angles of fire from within the room. Canderous was not, but I could hear the answering fire from his rifle, so I was not overly worried.

I leveled my blaster rifle at the end of the hallway, around the corner of which was the entrance to the security cluster. I expected beings to start pouring past it any minute, but they did not. Within a few short minutes Canderous had emerged from the room again. "I've got the codes," he said.

"Okay, Let's go," I replied. And just as I turned to follow Canderous back to the hangar bay, red lights began to flash and sirens went off throughout the ship. "Shavit! What the frack did you do?" I cried. Before Canderous could answer the barrage of beings that I had been expecting showed up.

I fired into the first two and they fell like stones. The other ones got smart and ducked back behind the corner before I could fell them. "Come on!" Canderous told me. "We have to get to the hangar bay!"

I gestured to him in an indication that he was to cover me while I retreated. He did so, and I turned and ran a ways down the hallway before turning and providing him cover fire while he did the same. We kept going on in this fashion until we got around the far corner of the hall and then we broke into a full out run, blasters held across our chests and out of our way.

It seemed as if the entire staff of the yacht was out in the corridors. Canderous led us through the crowd by bellowing at them to get out of the way, and not in basic either. He shouted at them in Mando'a, and even though I was the only one who could understand him it was still very effective. You either had to be really thick or really stupid to stay in the way of a charging Mandalorian.

As I ran in Canderous' wake I wondered where everyone was going to. They were not after us specifically, and as far as I knew Canderous had not set off any alarms while inside the room where he had gotten the Hawk's access codes. The only other thing that would set off the alarms was an attack, and I had not felt the yacht suffer from any impacts, so what was going on? When he wasn't yelling, I voiced my concerns to Canderous.

"It doesn't matter!" he replied. "Davik will head for the hanger bay first in order to secure the _Hawk_ for his use. We have to get there before he does!" It was a very blunt answer, but it was a good one none-the-less.

So we yelled and pushed our way through the beings thronging for the escape pods, shooting when we had to. Fortunately the escape pods were in a separate section of the yacht entirely, so when we got within a few corridors of the hangar bay the hallways emptied out. I made sure to check behind me every few steps anyway, just to be sure.

We skidded to a halt in front of the hangar bay doors. The control panel next to them was green, indicating that they had very recently been used and not locked again. We stood there for a moment and then looked at each other. Canderous' grizzled face was hard, his steel gray eyes focused and ready. "Are you ready?" he asked me.

I gave him a wide, predatory grin that showed off every one of my teeth. "Anytime, lover," I said. The words had come out of my mouth before I could think about them, and I could not take them back now. But they caused Canderous to smile and bring a strange joy to his battle-ready expression.

"Alright," the Mandalorian said in his deep voice that made me shiver. "Then let's go."

We moved to either sides of the door without having to say anything and Canderous, having gotten the side that had the control panel, pressed it with one hand. The door opened much slower than I'd have preferred, and as they did I looked over at Canderous again. I took a flash grenade off my belt and held it up so that he could see, one eyebrow raised in question. He grinned, and I popped its activation switch, which was indented below the curve of the sphere so that it could not be activated by accident, and threw it into the room.

I looked away and closed my eyes, counting out the grenade's timer in my head. The flash went off, still bright enough that my eyes registered it through my eyelids, and I ran around the corner of the doorway blaster-first, firing blindly into the room. I opened my eyes only moments later, and there were Calo and Davik half crouched by the Ebon Hawk's ramp. Davik was obviously dazed from the flash grenade but Calo was unaffected as he was wearing dark goggles. I fired at Davik, aiming my shots in a line up his chest to his head. I missed my headshot once and he recovered enough to try and doge, but he did not escape me a second time. I felt a small measure of remorse that an Exchange boss had been so easy to kill but did not linger over it long for Calo was quickly proving to be tougher than the purple clad man had been.

He must have been wearing some armor underneath all of his robes because he had taken multiple hits to the chest and was still not down. He was deadly with his little long-barreled blaster pistol too; I felt a bolt whiz past my ear as I dove for cover behind a crate.

I slung my blaster rifle over my shoulder, trading it for my slugthrower. Frack blowing a hole in the hull, I wanted something that could pierce that little shavit Calo's armor. I drew up carefully and posed to stick my gun over the top of my crate as soon as I got a break in the blaster fire. Canderous was not waiting; he was simply firing around the corner of his crate at Calo's own cover.

Suddenly the ship rocked violently and I only saved myself from pitching face first into the deck by taking a hand of my slughthrower and bracing it against the ground. There was an incredibly loud, high pitched noise that somewhat resembled a blaster blot followed by a horrible rending sound above me. I turned my head up just in time to see a large pile of scaffolding break free from its mooring and slam downward. There was no time to dodge, but fortunately I was out of the landing zone.

Calo wasn't. I saw that as soon as I could stand up. "Move!" Canderous shouted at me and I instantly complied, for I could hear the high pitched hissing that indicated the hangar bay was beginning to lose atmosphere.

I slung my rifle over my shoulder as I pounded up the ram behind Canderous. "You know how to pilot this thing?" I asked.

"Yes!" he replied, his own weapon over his shoulder.

"You know how to land this thing by an apartment complex?" I asked. Canderous shot an incredulous look over his shoulder as we powered through the Hawk's main room and headed for the head of the ship where the cockpit was. "Then I'm piloting!" I told him. I was going back for Danika in the others, orbital lasers or no.

And that's what they were to. The thing that had lanced through the hangar bay had been an orbital laser, something that would be mounted on a big war-ship like the _Endar Spire_, or a Sith ship. I didn't know why the Sith would be firing on Davik's yacht, he seemed to be on good terms with them the last time that I had checked. The only reason they would was because something had changed. And the only thing that had changed in the very recent past that might cause a reaction like this was that someone must have decided that it was easier to bombard the entire civilized part of the planet rather than let her possibly get away.

Canderous didn't fight me, which surprised me a bit. I would have thought he'd argue that we take off without my friends, but apparently he knew me after all. Anyone who knew me even a little bit was aware that I was loyal to my friends.

It was that drive that allowed me to take up the hated controls and sit in the pilot's chair while Canderous sat in the co-pilot's seat. Canderous fed the computer the access codes and when the lights on the console turned green I rapidly flicked through the starting sequence. The engines revved up, making the ship buzz gently underneath my feet. My extra sensitive hearing picked up the sound of the access hatch closing and the indicator on the control console before me confirmed it. I seized the piloting stick as Canderous broadcasted the codes to open the outer hangar bay doors. Warning lights came on as they did and I activated the _Hawk's_ repulsar lifts as I waited for it to get wide enough to allow me to exit.

It seemed to take forever for the outer doors to open. What was left of the atmosphere in the hangar bay was sucked out in a great _whoosh_. I eased the ship forward even before they were fully open, gently tipping the ship on an angle in order to fit it through. Most of my passengers flinched at this maneuver but Canderous did not. Either he trusted my piloting style or he was simply unafraid.

"Call Danika!" I told Canderous as I dodged the orbital laser fire that was tearing into the hull of Davik's yacht. I fed him the number for her comlink without even flinching as I accelerated towards Taris' atmosphere. As I continued to thread the _Hawk_ through the maelstrom I heard the comm system buzz.

"Sab, that better be you!" Danika yelled through her comm link.

"Stay where you are!" I yelled back. "I'm coming to you! ETA two minutes!"

"Just get your ass down here!" Danika yelled, promptly disconnecting before I could reply. I gritted my teeth and pushed the _Hawk_ as fast as it could safely go while punching through atmosphere. I had to navigate by sight back to the apartment complex and gauge by sight where laser fire would fall. Buildings burned and fell in on themselves as I passed.

I braked the ship sharply in order to land in the courtyard outside the apartment complex. I overrode the normal protocols and lowered the access ramp even as I eased the _Hawk_ towards the ground. I didn't make full contact with the ground, mostly because I didn't want to risk not being able to take off again.

Canderous immediately got up as I lowered the ship and went for the access hatch, cocking his slugthrower as he went. I did not call out to him because I knew that he was likely going to make sure no one tried to hijack the ship and that he would recognize Danika and the others on sight. I was right, because Danika came racing into the cockpit soon after I had lowered the ship enough for a person to be able to get at the access ramp. "Nice timing, Blondie," she said gratefully as she slipped into the co-pilots seat.

"Yeah well, we'll see," I replied.

Canderous came back in to let me know everyone was on board and I retracted the access ramp, pushing the _Ebon Hawk's_ nose skyward even before the console told me it was closed.

* * *

To Be Continued…

9


	16. Chapter 16

Gone for Good Chapter 16; Downwind

**Chapter 16 **

**Downwind **

The _Ebon Hawk_ rocked beneath me and I quickly stabilized it. "Bastila!" I called. "Get those coordinates up!"

"I'm working on it!" Bastila replied tightly. She tapped the controls of the console in an off-beat rhythm, agonizingly slowly in my opinion. I heard the faint rumble-cough of the Ebon Hawk's turrets firing back at the Sith fighters. Danika was manning one while Canderous was on the other, and between them they had already taken out a decent amount of fighters. Some were still managing to get through however, and there were just too many of them for our two itty bitty turrets to handle. We had to jump to hyperspace soon or be overwhelmed by them.

"I mean it, Princess!" I snapped, gritting my teeth as I wheeled the Hawk to avoid a pack of fighters.

"Got it!" Bastila shouted triumphantly.

I clicked the ship's intercom as she prepped the hyperdrive. "Brace for hyperspace jump, people!" I said into it. Moments later the stars around us lengthened, stretching into infinity. The Sith fighters went with the stars and were gone. The turrets immediately stopped firing, and I knew that Danika and Canderous would be coming into the main room. I switched the ship to autopilot and unhooked myself out of my flight harness with desperate speed, flinging myself out of the chair as if it were covered in slime. I shuddered once, violently, and felt immediately better.

"Are you alright?" Bastila asked me, her expression concerned.

"Yeah," I answered. "I just hate driving." I was fine now. It never bothered me to be in a ship or even in the cockpit; I only got upset when I had to sit in the pilot's seat.

Bastila searched me with a tense look and I found I could not meet those sky blue eyes for long. Before she could say anything I walked down the narrow hall that led to the main room, eager to check on the others.

Everyone was out of their chairs already and Mission was in tears. Zaalbar held her and made cooing noises to try and soothe her. Carth was trying to help as well, rubbing her back and reassuring her that the Republic wouldn't let the Sith get away with destroying Taris. Hestra was the only one sitting in her chair still and she made no move to get up. She looked tired, and I could see more lines on her face that when I had left her in the apartment. I realized with a start that for the first time she well and truly looked _old_.

I moved to collect my pack and rifles where I had left them but I stayed in the _Ebon Hawk's_ main room. I wanted to see Danika and get the rest of us together and figure out what we were going to do next. Our plan on Taris had been to get Bastila and get off, but we had never discussed what to do afterwards. Bastila had jumped us to safety for the moment, so we had a little time to talk.

Danika arrived quickly with all her gear, her brow furrowed above her delicate nose. Canderous was just behind her, his face set into grim neutral. I met his eyes and shook my head slightly, trying to tell him that I didn't want to announce our relationship just yet. He gave me an almost imperceptible nod in answer. His steel gray eyes were strangely soft.

"Bastila still in the cockpit?" Danika asked me quietly as she came up next to me. I nodded and she turned to walk down the hall that led to it.

I walked past Mission, Zaalbar, and Carth and sat down next to Hestra, leaning back as far as the rifles slung over my shoulder would allow. "How are you doing?" I asked her.

She looked over at me with those grass green eyes, cracked the faintest of smiles tinged with sadness, shook her head, and looked away. "Better than you, I expect," she said in that clear Coruscanti accent that sounded so strange coming from you. "I'm just tired, that's all."

"Yeah," I said, turning to look at Mission as I spoke. "That makes two of us."

As the teenager cried her heart out, I sat there and felt that same ache with her. It felt like something was missing and no matter how many memories I gained back I would never be able to find it.

* * *

"Dantooine," Bastila breathed as the _Hawk_ came out of hyperspace

Yes, Dantooine. It floated in front of the cockpit's port like a green-blue gem on a piece of the blackest velvet. The sight stirred in me a strange feeling of peace and a powerful sense of Déjà vu. I had been here before, I just couldn't remember it.

And I didn't intend to try. Bastila had been behaving very strangely around Danika and I for the entirety of the short trip. She was watching us carefully, and since she was a Jedi and therefore able to read minds, it was best if I knew as little as possible for the moment.

"Eh," Danika said beside me. "Bunch of farmers."

"And what's wrong with farmers?" Carth asked, his tone slightly defensive. He was sitting in the pilot's seat now and was more comfortable than I had ever seen him before.

"Nothing," Danika answered immediately, rolling her eyes at me when he turned away.

"It's pretty though," I said quietly.

Bastila's head turned to me and her eyes held that strange pain again, but she looked away just as quickly and there was no time to sort it out. "Yes it is," she replied. She was silent for a few moments, and then she spoke up again. "I need to see the Council when we land. We can refuel here and rest for a while. We are safe from Malak here, for a while at least."

Carth made a derisive noise. "You saw what he did not Taris, Bastila," Carth said. "There is no 'safe' from that."

"Even Malak would think twice before attacking Dantooine," Bastila replied firmly. "There are many Jedi here, including some of the most powerful members of the Order."

"Great load of Shavit that'll do if he attacks from orbit," Danika said sarcastically.

Bastila shot her a dirty, look but before she could try and reprimand the dark-haired smuggler I cut her off. "There's no use in quibbling about it," I said. "Malak won't know exactly where we've gone and he doesn't even know if Bastila made it of Taris alive, so he won't come here right off. Besides, Dantooine is squarely in Republic territory if my memory serves, so it would take him a while to get here anyway and we should get a warning before he does. We may not be completely safe, but let's take what we can get, shall we?" After I finished my speech I turned and headed directly for the port dormitory, which had been declared the women's quarters soon after everyone had had a chance to explore the ship.

I sat down on my bunk when I got there. Mission was in the bunk across from mine and was curled into a loose ball. "We're going to land on Dantooine soon," I said.

"So?" Mission asked brokenly, her voice muffled by her arms.

"Just thought you might like to know," I replied gently. The teenager didn't bother to respond, and after a few moments I got up from my bunk and went over to sit next to her. I didn't say anything; I just wrapped an arm around her shoulders and sat. After a time she uncurled and hugged me, clinging to me as if I might disappear. I returned the embrace and tucked my chin gently so that it rested on the top of her head, and still I said nothing.

* * *

As soon as we landed Bastila walked briskly down the access ramp and disappeared into the Enclave's entrance. None of us followed, mostly because there were more interesting things close at hand.

The large flat landing pad where the _Ebon Hawk_ had set down was paved with honest-to-Force stone and not duracrete as was common throughout the galaxy. Raised square pillars, terminating at about waist height, stood about its perimeter, marking it off from the rest of the landscape. And there wasn't much of it. The Jedi Enclave splayed before the landing pad in a low, humble complex. Beyond it, as far as the eye could see, were softly rolling hills covered in a tall, green grass. Trees, both alone and small groves, broke the vast endless sea of grass occasionally. Small, gentle mesas did this as well, but other than that it was as if the Jedi Enclave was alone on the planet. I knew this was not true for I had taken the time to look up Dantooine in the _Ebon Hawk's_ very small library. It had said that Dantooine was populated, mostly in the region we were in now, by a loose affiliation of farmers. They had a central building not far from the Enclave for a mutual market, cantina, and their own council where matters of government were settled. Other than that they lived on their farms which were a short swoop ride away from each other, but comfortably out of what most beings in the galaxy would consider walking distance.

On the landing platform itself there were a few covered market stalls manned by bored looking beings selling trinkets or clothing, anything practical that a Jedi might buy. The trinket stall occupied Hestra, who browsed through it lazily with Mission at her side. The teenager had stayed glued to the older woman after we had left the ship and still looked like a wilted flower. I suspected Hestra had fetched her from the women's dormitory and dragged her outside herself. More power to her. Mission needed someone to try and get her to engage in everyday life and I was not particularly up to it at the moment.

"I don't like it," Danika said next to me after we had finished observing the landing platform and our surroundings.

"You just don't like how it makes you feel," I replied. "I know for a fact you don't mind the scenery." And it was true. Danika had always been a sucker for a pretty landscape. She wouldn't admit it though and she gave me a mildly dirty look for the comment.

"I don't suppose they have a cantina around here somewhere," Danika said sullenly.

"They do," I said. "I read up about Dantooine on the _Hawk_. You want to go for a drink? It's a bit early still, but I'd be up for it."

Danika made a noncommittal noise in her throat and stared at the entrance to the Jedi Enclave complex. Her midnight blue eyes were troubled and her brow was furrowed slightly. I didn't like that look. It was the look she got before she went out, got roaring drunk, fought in whatever cantina she'd found, and then came back to the ship nursing her wounds and crying where she couldn't think I could see. She'd done that every few months when we had been on the _Urusai_ and I had always been the one to clean up the resulting mess.

"Eh," I said when it was clear Danika wasn't going to speak. "We'd have to wait until Zaalbar gets back anyway. He took the swoop in the cargo hold to the market to get us supplies."

Carth came up to us from one of the market stalls. He had a package with him containing his purchases and although I couldn't tell what was in it I could tell that the pilot was unhappy. "I don't like this," he said, in a tone that was strikingly similar to Danika's.

"Don't like what?" I asked.

"I don't like being on a planet full of Jedi," Carth answered. "They're always up to something and they never give you a straight answer."

"We don't like it either, Flyboy, but there's not much we can do about it right now," Danika replied. She was still fixedly staring at the Enclave entrance.

"Unless you want to take off and head for a nice little planet on the Outer or Mid Rim," I said to Danika. "But I get the feeling Carth doesn't want to bail out on the Republic." A look at the pilot confirmed my statement, and Danika nodded.

"In absence of anybody from the Republic Armed Forces the Jedi are our nearest supervising officers, isn't that right?" Danika said to Carth.

"Yes, that's right," Carth grumbled.

"Then we're stuck on Jedi Central for a while," Danika said, turning back to the _Hawk_ when she had finished speaking.

"Where's she going?" Carth asked. He looked unhappy about being stuck on Dantooine, but resigned as well. He was a soldier at heart.

"Probably for her stash of Tarisian Ale," I answered. "She doesn't like Jedi much, either."

"When did she get Tarisian Ale?" Carth asked with a genuinely puzzled expression. "I never saw her pick up any."

"Oh, trust me. She finds her ways." Danika was a smuggler to the core. And since she was sensitive about her drinking problem she usually employed that particular set of skills to disguise her purchases. I had fairly sharp eyes and I could only spot her at it about a quarter of the time, so it was no surprise that Carth hadn't caught her at all.

Brown eyes shadowed with worry, Carth turned the ring on his finger absently. He looked over the whole of the _Hawk_, sitting there in the soft sunshine of Dantooine's sun, and sighed. "She's a good ship," he said.

"Yeah," I replied. "Davik wasn't one to keep his equipment in bad repair. And with Taris gone no one's going to come after us to get it back."

"I guess that's a good thing," Carth said. His eyes darkened at the mention of Taris' fall, and I wondered if he had lost his wife in one such assault. It was entirely possible. Taris was not the first planet to be devastated from orbit by Malak and his fleet.

All things considered, it was nice to have a ship to call home again. The _Hawk_ was a handsome ship, if somewhat beaten up around the edges. And it was definitely a smuggler's ship. In the very short time I'd spent aboard I had discovered a significant number of nooks and crannies suitable for all sorts of cargo. I knew that I could spend the next five years and never find them all. The _Urusai_ had been the same, although her design had been an older one than the _Hawk's_.

Just thinking of the old ship that Danika and I had shared brought to mind the forcible enrollment into the Republic that had gotten us into this whole Taris mess in the first place. I hoped the _Hawk_ was more lucky than the _Urusai _had been, and that it would carry us through safely to the end of our journey, no matter where that might be.

* * *

"The Council has requested an audience with you and Danika," Bastila said. She had found me in the _Hawk's_ engine room and her face was an uncharacteristically blank mask.

"Heh. Hate to break it to you, Princess, but Danika's not going anywhere for a while," I said. I looked back at the exposed guts of the hyperdrive and poked about in it with my servodriver, checking everything to make sure it was solid.

"We can't keep the Council waiting," Bastila said, her voice clearly flustered. "We must go now."

I sighed and replaced the covering for the hyperdrive. "Unless you want to parade Danika around smelling of booze you'd best tell them it can wait," I said as I packed up the tools back into their box. It came with me when I stood up, just in time to see the strange and unhappy look on Bastila's face. She'd be a very bad pazzak player, I knew.

"She's drunk?" she asked.

"Yup," I answered. "I can get her sobered up by tomorrow, but she's done for today."

Bastila's face contorted into a strange grimace. "But-"

"No buts," I said. "If you want me to see the Council now, and give them a diplomatic excuse for Danika, I can do that. But Danika herself isn't going anywhere today."

Bastila's brows furrowed and she put me strongly in mind of a deposed five year old. But she gave me a little bow and did not protest further. "Let's go, then," she said quietly.

"I gotta put these tools back in the garage. Meet me by the access ramp," I said, hefting the tool box for emphasis. Bastila bristled a bit at being dismissed but she went.

Carth was in the garage cleaning his pistols as I returned the tools. "Hey, Carth," I said in greeting. "If anybody wants to know where I've disappeared to, Bastila's taking me to see the Jedi Council. I have to go make excuses for Danika's drunk ass."

"The Council?" Carth asked. "What do they want?"

"Don't ask me. I'll let you know as soon I know." Carth had been with Danika, Hestra and I since our initial crash on Taris and even though I didn't really know him all that well I didn't want to leave him out of the loop. I could see on his face that he appreciated the gesture.

"Thanks," he said. "And good luck."

I snorted as I exited the garage. "Appreciated. I'll need all the luck I can get."

* * *

The inside of the Jedi Enclave was plain, but it had its own beauty. And everything was well made. The Jedi may have been monks, but they certainly weren't poor.

Bastila led me through the Conclave with an easy familiarity. I stuck close to her, for I didn't particularly want to speak with any of the other Jedi. There weren't many, but what few were around gave me level stares that unnerved me. Not because I was intimidated by any of them, which I should have been considering they all carried lightsabers and could throw me around with their minds, but because it was so irritatingly, unaccountably _familiar_.

I had walked these halls before, seen these same level stares, and felt the cool air trapped within these walls on my skin.

Inside a warren of corridors within the heart of the complex Bastila stopped before a plain door that apparently led to the Council chamber. She turned and looked at me with a worried, anxious expression. "Do you know what to tell them?" she asked.

"Yes," I answered her. "I'm going to say that Danika's been experiencing a lot of stress lately and that she's feeling ill." My mouth twitched in the barest hint of an ironic smile. "It's close enough to what's really going on."

Bastila's eyes turned sad then. "Alright," she said, and then turned and stepped forward to touch the access panel next to the door.

I followed Bastila through the door into a large, high ceilinged chamber. The light within was not as harsh as what normally came from glow lights and a quick glance upward revealed why. The ceiling was one giant plate of curved transparasteel, allowing the room to be lit with soft natural light. As I looked down again I saw that there were trees native to Dantooine planted within the room. They looked old and fit within the curved walls and somber tones of the room perfectly. I even saw a few small birds in their branches.

I hadn't realized that I had stopped to take the room in before Bastila cleared her throat and I started slightly. Flushing with embarrassment at being caught wagging my jaw I stepped forward to stand in the middle of the depression in the middle of the floor. The Jedi stood around the perimeter of the depression, a bright red male Twi'lek with lekku of a darker shade, one pale skinned human male, one dark, and a diminutive male of a green skinned and long eared species I did not recognize.

"Your companion is not with you. Is she well?" the red Twi'lek asked. His voice was deep and melodic, and he spoke in Basic instead of the Twi'lek's native language, much like Mission did.

"I'm afraid not, Master Jedi," I answered. "Our stay on Taris was a difficult one, and she is feeling the stress of it acutely." I gave them a stately bow then, lowering my upper body deeply enough to be polite but not deep enough to seem subservient. "I must excuse her for the day."

I saw Bastila blink out of the corner of my vision and smirked inside my head. I had learned proper manners while growing up on Deralia, quickly learning that it was sometimes the quickest way to get what I wanted. If she thought me a callow smuggler, she was dead wrong.

"Well spoken," the light skinned human male said. He sounded skeptical and I could tell immediately that I wouldn't like him.

"You're manners are commendable," the red Twi'lek said. "I am Master Zhar of the Jedi Council, and next to me are Master's Vrook, Vandar, and the chronicler of our academy, Master Dorak. We were just discussing the rather special case of you and your companion, Danika, was it?"

"Yes," I answered. "Her full name is Danika Reed, and I am Sabine Thade. It is a pleasure to meet you." I didn't like the sound of a 'special case' consisting of myself and Danika, but I would play this meeting out to its end without flinching anyway.

"Likewise," Zhar replied gracefully. "We were considering the two of you for Jedi training, however perhaps this conversation would be better held when Danika has recovered."

"She should be well by tomorrow," I replied. "What time would you like to see us?"

"I think an hour before noon would be acceptable," Zhair said with a small smile.

I responded with a full fledged one. "We will be here perfectly on time, I assure you."

"You are dismissed," Vrook said suddenly. "I'm sure you have things you need to do."

I was barely able to control myself well enough to keep from bristling at the older Master's tone. I bowed again, turned gracefully on my heel, and left.

There was no need to recreate the path that Bastila had taken me on the way in, for my feet seemed to know where to go automatically. That familiarity bothered me but I had learned my lesson at the swoop race on Taris and I did not attempt to delve further. I simply let my feet guide me back to the landing pad and reviewed the brief meeting with the Jedi Council in my head. They had said that they were considering Danika and I for Jedi training.

I thought back suddenly to the Sith without a lightsaber that we had killed at the Sith base on Taris. He had called Danika and I Force Adepts. And if an apprentice Sith could sense that, why had Danika and I not been singled out when we had initially been recruited into the Republic Armed forces? Or afterwards, while we served on the _Endar Spire_? There had been plenty of Jedi around during that time that could have picked up that we had Jedi potential.

I got the distinct feeling that the Jedi would not give me a straight answer if I asked them, but that was standard for Jedi anyway. There was no reason I should feel a particular foreboding about their response now.

And yet I did. So I went back to the _Ebon Hawk_ to tell Danika about our meeting tomorrow and make sure she didn't drink too much. I knew I would tell her nothing of what I had felt today or suspected, and for some reason I felt sick and guilty from that knowledge.

* * *

To Be Continued…

10


	17. Chapter 17

Gone For Good Chapter 17; Outplay

**Chapter 17**

**Outplay**

_The room was paved in black stone, high vaulted and ornate. The air was dank and old, and in the thick dust on the floor a single, black and red figure paced before the door at the far end of the room. I recognized him from my earlier vision as Revan. Another, taller figure watched, his bald head the only bright thing in the room. Unlike his companion he wore conservative Jedi armor in shades of black and orange. I recognized him even without his jaw replacement, for his picture had turned up all over the galaxy since the Mando Wars. He was Malak._

_After Revan had paced in front of the door for a minute or so, and then Malak came forward to block his path. "The dark side is strong in this place," he said. "I can feel its power so clearly!" _

_Revan stopped right in front of Malak and turned his masked face up towards the taller Jedi, seeming to regard him for a moment. And then Revan turned and walked to the door, studying it as if he were searching for something. He raised his hand, and Malak spoke again. _

"_Is this wise?" Malak asked. "Ancient Jedi sealed this archway for a reason. The Order will surely banish us. Are the secrets of the Star Forge so valuable? Are they truly worth the risk?" _

_But his words went unheeded and Revan waved his hand before the large door. A section in the middle of it indented into the rest of the wall and ancient mechanisms worked to withdraw the door into the wall it was housed in. Revan walked in through the door and Malak followed. Beyond it was a smaller, if no less ornate room than the one they had left. It held a strange triangular device in the middle of the room that unfolded when they approached, expelling a ball that began to spin and glow. The bare framework of an ancient hologram began to form, but before it could complete itself the dream faded away like smoke on the wind. _

* * *

I woke up on my bunk in the _Ebon Hawk_, tightly curled on my side and scrunched up with my face against the wall. My blankets were tangled around my form and my neck hurt.

"Oh _ow_," I moaned as I pried myself loose. It took a minute to untangle myself from my blanket, and I grunted when I finally tumbled free. I moaned and stood up in a painful daze, dimly noticing that there was no one else in the bunk. I was alone.

Grumbling to myself I stiffly fished out a clean set of clothes from the locker underneath my bunk. I was getting a shower and breakfast, and perhaps after that I would feel more human. I was not inclined to be nice to anyone who got in my way.

Mission was just walking out of the main hold with that depressed and sullen look on her face as I came out of the port dormitories. She took one look at me, saw the look on my face, and immediately turned and scurried around the nearest corner out of sight. I smiled tightly to myself and made the immediate turn to the refresher, which was housed between the port dormitories and the access ramp.

As the hot water coursed over my body I just stood there, my face turned up and my eyes closed. The new vision kept playing over and over in my mind. I could not shake it, could not shake how real it had felt. Once again, and mostly likely not for the last time, I asked myself what was happening to me.

But I had no answers, so I finished my shower and dressed, and went about my regular morning routine and tried to put the question out of my mind.

* * *

"What is _going_ on this morning?" Carth asked when he saw me emerge from the _Ebon Hawk_. He had apparently just been heading into it.

"What are you talking about?" I asked the pilot. He looked fairly flustered.

"First Bastila comes walking out looking like a ghost, and then Danika. And now you too!" Carth exclaimed.

"Eh?" The sound was out of my mouth before I could help it. I thought back to the Bek base on Taris and Danika describing to me a dream that we had apparently shared. Had it happened again? "Where's Danika?" I asked.

"She headed towards the Council chambers a little while ago," Carth answered. "Bastila just sent me to get you… Is everything alright?" I had told him about my meeting with the Council the previous day, so he knew that Danika and I apparently had Jedi potential. He hadn't liked the news and he seemed concerned about both of us.

I rubbed my face and grumbled wordlessly before replying. "I don't know, Carth. I really don't. You'll know what's going on as soon as I do."

Carth nodded at my words. "I really appreciate that. Tell Danika I said to feel better. She took off with Bastila pretty abruptly."

"Will do," I nodded.

I followed the same path through the Enclave complex that I had taken before. There were even fewer Jedi about today, but it was close to noon so I simply assumed they were all off eating their midday meal.

"Padawan!" someone called. I turned to find the source of the voice and saw a young human woman. She had dark blond hair, brown eyes, and was of the same height as I was. She was wearing full Jedi regalia instead of the strange armor that Bastila seemed to prefer.

The woman came trotting up to me with her brows furrowed in a determined look. "Why do you not wear the robes of the Jedi?" she asked me. "Do you mock the traditions of our Order?"

"Uh, I hate to burst your bubble lady, but I'm not a Jedi," I told her.

She blinked, caught off guard by my words. "But I saw you with Padawan Bastila yesterday…" she said.

"Yeah, well the Council wanted to see me, so she showed me where to go," I replied.

"Oh. The Council wanted to see you?" The young woman looked a bit hurt and confused.

"I suppose they wanted to thank me or something," I replied diplomatically. "My friend and I helped Bastila escape the Sith fleet. My friend wasn't well yesterday, so I'm coming back with her today."

"Oh," the woman said and gave me a knowing look that seemed to pierce my soul. Could she tell I was an Adept or whatever the Sith on Taris had called it? "Well, I am Belaya. If you need anything during your stay here feel free to seek me out."

"I'm Sabine," I replied, giving her a little bow in acknowledgement. "And I'll be sure to remember you, Belaya."

"Thank you, Sabine," Belaya said. "You'd best go now. You should not keep the Council waiting."

I nodded and made more polite noises before leaving. I did not see any other Jedi as I walked to the Council chambers, only a few protocol droids. Our little mech droid T3 was still on the ship and had been cleaning last time I had checked. The little guy seemed to be obsessed with it.

Bastila was fidgeting in the little seating area just outside the Council chambers. Danika had taken a seat beside her and looked tired. She was pale and the skin around her eyes was drawn tight. She looked up at me wearily as I approached. "Hey, Sab," she said.

"Hey, Dani," I replied. "You look like a Corellian Hell."

My old friend snorted lightly as she stood up. "Yeah, well you're not much to look at right now either."

Bastila stood up then and looked between us nervously. "Are we ready, then?" she asked.

"Lead on, Princess," I said, gesturing with my hand. Despite my use of her nickname she seemed to take strength from my words.

Danika and I followed Bastila in through the doors and it was Danika's turn to take in its architecture. Normally she would have been just as interested in it as I had been the day before, but she was more tired than I had thought. She glanced up at the ceiling, observed it briefly, and then took in the rest of the room in a glance as she walked into the depression in the floor. We stood there next to each other and Bastila split off to stand a little ways away from the Council in the perimeter.

"Welcome back, Sabine," Master Zhar said. "And welcome, Danika."

Danika made a noncommittal noise in her throat. She was not overly fond of official meetings in general and did not like Jedi very much at all. She'd go out of her way to be rude, I knew. I sighed inside.

"We would like to thank the two of you for helping Bastila escape Taris," Master Zhar continued. "She has told us of what you did to find her, and we agree that it was no small feat."

"She must be pretty damned important, for Malak to destroy a whole planet just for her," Danika said. Her voice was mostly neutral but I could hear the note of bitterness in it.

"To destroy the Jedi Order, Malak seeks," the diminutive, green skinned Master who Zhar had called Vandar said. "Our most effective weapon, perhaps our only hope Bastila's skill with Battle Meditation is. All that stands between us and defeat, she is."

"And if Malak cannot capture her he will destroy her," the light-skinned human male, Vrook, said. "Taris just happened to be in his way."

"Didn't work," Bastila said with a snort. Vrook glared at her as if she was a five year old that had stuck her finger in his glass of water.

"Thankfully so," Zhar said. "We need Bastila; indeed we need every Jedi we can muster. Which brings us to you two." He turned slightly and nodded at me with a strange, tense look in his eyes. "We have already told Sabine that we are considering the two of you for Jedi training. Bastila tells us you are very strong in the Force."

"The words of one Padawan hardly constitute acceptance, however," Vrook said. "If we are to accept you to be trained as Jedi we need undisputable proof of your affinity for the Force."

"Proof?" Bastila asked, looking startled. "Surely all of you can feel the strength of the Force in these women! And I have already related to you the events that took place on Taris. They could not have achieved such a thing without the help of the Force."

"Perhaps it was simple luck," Vrook said with a deep frown.

"We both know there is no luck," Zhar admonished. "And the Force is strong within these women, although it is wild and untamed. I do not think it would be wise to ignore such a thing."

Danika had been growing tight and very quiet beside me, a sure sign that she was angry. When Zhar spoke, she could hold herself back no longer. "And when exactly were you planning on asking _us_ about this?" She asked in a cold voice. "What if we don't _want _to be trained?"

"I agree with Danika," I said. "We are both adults and _we_ decide what to do with our lives. Who are you to speak of us as if we are children under your care?"

"You _are_ under our care," Vrook said. "Both of you are being detained for smuggling by the Republic. They chose to allow you to serve your time in the armed forces. We can change those orders and have you thrown in prison, or we can have you reassigned for Jedi training. The choice is yours."

My whole body tightened up with anger at the statement. I bit down on the angry torrent of words that wanted to break lose, knowing perfectly well that they might have an inhuman edge to them if I spoke them now. I could feel my body straining to be let loose, to grow fangs and fur and claws and express my anger in a way that would leave no doubt who was in charge.

"How dare you?" Danika demanded, and a glance revealed that she was just as angry as I was. Before she could go on however Zhar cut her off.

"We have no desire to force you to become Jedi," he said, shooting an unreadable look at Vrook. "If you wish to return to the Republic armed forces, you may do so. No one will send you to prison for that choice."

"Normally we would have never offered you training at all," Dorak, the dark skinned chronicler, said. "The Jedi rarely accept adults for training. However these are dark times and we are losing many members of our Order to the war. We need every Force-sensitive individual we can find." He looked truly concerned and that calmed me somewhat.

Dorak's eyes met mine for a brief moment and a wave of reassurance rolled over me. I knew without having to be told that it was him, and that he had sent the feeling to me through the Force. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bastila tense suddenly and then relax, her head twitching slightly as if she had resisted turning it to look sharply at Dorak. The whole thing rocked me right out of my anger and into confusion.

Next to me I could feel Danika rock back on her heels as well. But she recovered before I did. "We need some time to think about this," she said.

"Of course," Zhar said. "Take as much time as you need."

Without bowing or being formally dismissed Danika turned to leave and I followed her. We left the Enclave compound as quickly as we could without running and we did not stop when we came to the landing platform that held the _Ebon Hawk_. We kept going, walking over the crests of the gentle rolling hills until the Enclave and the _Hawk_ were hidden from sight.

"What the frack was that?" I asked quietly.

Danika shook her head. "It was like… it was like Dorak _knew_ you," she said.

"Yeah," I agreed with a shudder. "And what about that creepy dream? Did you have that too?"

"The one with Revan and Malak?" Danika asked. She hugged herself and shuddered as well.

"Yeah" I replied. "That one."

There was a silence for a while where all I could hear was the wind rustling through the grass, the call of animals in the distance, and the sounds of the Enclave behind me. And then Danika spoke, very quietly. "Sab," she murmured, knowing somehow that I would hear, "it felt like I was _there._"

"I know what you mean," I murmured back. "What are we going to do?"

"What you've already been doing," she answered carefully, her voice tightly controlled in that 'I have a plan' way that I recognized.

"And gather information," I replied. That was our rule. When in doubt, keep your head down and gather information. It had worked for us countless times before.

"Exactly," Danika said. She started to speak and then stopped, the sound escaping in a strange little puff of air. "I think..." she said finally. "I think we should take the offer."

"And become Jedi," I said deadpan.

"And become Jedi," Danika repeated. "The know more than they're telling."

I made a soft derisive noise in my throat. "You can say that again. When do you want to tell them?"

"Tomorrow," Danika said with a smile. "We can let them stew a bit, since they seem so worried."

I chuckled at that. "Us as _Jedi,_" I said, the chuckle turning into a giggle. I could see petite, delicate little Danika wearing a suit of the same armor that Bastila wore, a lightsaber in her hand and a stern look on her face. The image escalated the giggles into a full burst of laughter.

Danika must have gotten a similar image because she went red in the face and then let loose a peal of laughter herself. We clung breathless to each other and every time we nearly stopped, one of us would start the other up again. Eventually we ended up on our backs in the long grass, holding our sides and fighting to keep ourselves still.

I sighed, my face aching and my sides sore. "Well," I said with a hint of laughter in my voice still. "This should be interesting."

Danika set off into a brief burst of giggles. "Yeah," she said when she got them under control. "I think that's a given."

* * *

To Be Continued…

9


	18. Chapter 18

Gone For Good Chapter 18; Maverick

**Chapter 18 **

**Maverick **

"I love you," Canderous whispered.

I snuggled closer to his chest and breathed in his musky smell, thick and warm against the crisp cool smell of grass. "I love you too," I answered.

It was a quiet morning. Dantooine's sky was just beginning to lighten and a few darker blue brith could be seen, the green tops of their fleshy wings a flash of color on their down strokes. They were beautiful, and peaceful to, for they spent their lives flying through the sky sifting insects out of the air.

On the ground the faint cries of iriaz herds waking up for the day could be heard, as well as the deeper bellows of pikets and thune. Their predators, the kath hounds and the huurton packs, would be up soon as well. But for now it was relatively quiet and the ground was soft and sweet smelling beneath me, and Canderous was curled next to me beneath our thick blanket. It was good, and I wished that I could stay there like that forever.

But I couldn't. I had a date with Danika and the Jedi Council today. "You're running low on time," Canderous said gently in his deep voice. I wasn't surprised to see this loving, caring side of him but I knew others would. Mandalorians were supposed to be killers, trained to fight from birth and glorying in combat.

"I know," I answered, and sighed against his chest. "I don't want to go." I would though, and I didn't need to tell Canderous that. We all did things that we didn't want to do; because it was necessary to do so.

Canderous rubbed my arm and buried his nose in my hair, inhaling deeply. "I'll be here for you when you get back," he said.

"Thank you," I replied. That meant a lot to me. It gave me strength I needed to go and smile and ask to be trained, even while I knew that there was some undercurrent I was missing. Even while the Masters smiled back and lied.

"You need to go," Canderous said. He kissed the top of my head then, letting it linger in a gentle reminder. I smiled, turned my head up, and gave him a real kiss back. I rested my forehead against his for a moment before sitting up.

The sky brightened further as I pulled on my boots and outer tunic. It warmed my back as I strapped on my belt and finger-combed my hair. I contemplated putting it up in the half-again folded tail I wore usually and then discarded the notion. As I walked back to the _Ebon Hawk_ for a shower and a fresh set of clothes I let the wind pull my hair where it willed, reveling in the sound it made as it whistled past my ears. Today was a good day, a fresh day. I could do anything I needed to with Canderous there to support me, and I let the memory of our night together under the stars cradle me in peace and calm.

_Here I come, Jedi,_ I thought as the Enclave came into sight.

* * *

Danika was waiting for me in the seating area for the Jedi Council chambers. She regarded me with a knowing eye, for Canderous and I had not slept in the _Ebon Hawk_ the night before. "You really ought to watch it," she said. "I hear the Jedi don't take kindly to 'attachments.' "

I smiled at her. "Thanks for the heads up," I said. "Where's Bastila?"

"Eh," Danika muttered dismissively. "I think she's in there right now. Anyway, the room's got the 'occupied' light on." She waved her hand to indicate the light by the access panel, which sure enough was lit red.

I sighed and was about to sit down next to my old friend when the door light turned green and slid open to reveal a weary looking Bastila. She started when she saw us. "Uh, hello," she said.

"Is the Council busy?" Danika asked. She had not bothered to get up from her seat and did not look overly joyful to be there in the first place.

"W-well, no…" Bastila replied. She looked back and forth between us, her gaze uncertain. "Are you here to give them your decision?" She spoke the question as if she was afraid of the answer.

"Don't worry about it, kid," I reassured her. "It's a 'yes.' "

Bastila drew herself up and looked at us regally. "Well, then I have a question for you. Did either of you have a strange dream the other night?"

Danika looked at each other in the same instant and had a conversation with just our eyes, as old friends often did. We asked each other if we should tell her of the dream, briefly questioned the merits of doing so, and then agreed. We turned back to Bastila as one, but it was Danika who answered. "Yeah," she said. "It had Revan and Malak in it. Something about a map."

Bastila nodded in the slightest of head tilts. "Come, then," she said, and then turned back to the door and palmed the access panel.

Danika and I shared a sarcastic look then, and I made a sweeping gesture with my arms. "After you, Smartass," I said.

Danika smirked at me as she rose from her chair and followed Bastila, but she said nothing. I followed her suit as we walked into the Council chambers and took up the same positions that we had been in last time.

"Ah, you have returned quickly," Zhar said as he observed us. "Have you come to inform us of your decision?"

Danika's head tilted slightly, her eyes sliding to me. It was as clear as if she had spoken aloud, and so I answered Zhar's question. "Yes, Master Jedi," I said. "We wish to accept your offer of training." Something in me rebelled at the words but I put it aside.

"This is good to hear," Zhar replied, and I noted the way the muscles in his face and neck relaxed, as if he were greatly relieved. He hid it well and I doubted I would have spotted it had I seen him before the crash on Taris.

"Indeed," Vandar said. "The three of you may have shared a dream, Bastila says. Truth to this, is there?"

"There is," I answered when it was clear that Danika would not. Apparently she'd only join in if she objected to something.

All the Masters except Vrook nodded. He simply studied Danika and I with a level glare that made me want to raise hackles I did not have and growl at him.

"Happens, this does, between those strong in the Force," Vandar said. "Connected, the three of you are through it."

"Bastila had described the dream to us in great detail," Zhar continued, smoothly stepping into the place that Vandar's words had left. "There are ruins south of here that match the place she described."

"They are very old," Dorak added. It made sense. He was the chronicler, he would know more about this kind of thing than anyone else would. "They are very old, and we merely believed them to be burial mounds. Some of our Order may have tried to explore them earlier but they are sealed with the Force and we have left them alone in respect of that. However if Revan and Malak broke the seal and found something there, perhaps they are more important than we had originally thought."

I could feel Danika next to me, as clear as if I could see through her like water. It was true then, that we were connected. But Bastila seemed not to be as adept at reading her moods as I was, and as Danika was with me. We had known each other for a long time before this 'bonding' and we had been able to read each other fairly well already.

Still, this was new, a kind of clarity so beautiful it made me ache. Danika was already anticipating that the Council would ask us to investigate these ruins, and she did not want to do it. She held a strange dread in association with that place in the dream, whereas I held merely a wary curiosity.

"We would like you to investigate these ruins," Zhar said. "But first we must train you in the ways of the Force. Normally this process would take years, so we can only give you the very basics with the time we have. We will be sending Bastila with you when you leave Dantooine so that you might have a way to learn more of our Order as you go."

"Above all you must learn to resist the darkness within yourself," Vrook said grudgingly, his face set in a grim series of wrinkled lines. I realized with a bit of a shock that he was older than I had originally thought him to be, although his body, mind, and attitude still seemed as hale as ever. "You must learn to overcome anger and fear, for these are the seeds of the Dark Side of the Force."

The other Masters tilted their heads towards Vrook in acquiescence of his words. It seemed to be the end of the meeting, and sure enough we were dismissed with a few more words. Bastila went with us, the uncertain creature that I had caught off guard so many times gone with a sure, haughty Padawan in her place. As Danika and I learned quickly, we were technically below her in rank. For the moment we were simple initiates and we had much to learn, she told us, before we gained the rank of Padawan.

* * *

Danika's practice blade sang with that all-too-familiar sound of sharp metal whistling through the air. It clanged against my own blade, held across my body and just above my head, with a force that rang through my arms all the way to my elbows. Danika may have been short and delicately built, but she was deceptively strong

Sliding her blade down the length of mine, Danika danced back and twirled her weapon a few times in a movement I knew was meant to dazzle as well as limber her wrists. I knew better than to watch it too closely though, and I held my blade warily before me, circling around her like a kath hound about an iriaz buck. Blade practice had been mandatory during our brief stint in the Republic Armed Forces, and even before that we had practiced together almost daily. We knew each other's moves and moods well.

Both of us feinted at the other in turn, but neither of us flinched. Danika danced in, her blade whirring, and I danced back and away, using the last third of my blade to strike back at critical points in her swings to deflect her blade. I let her push me back to the edge of the practice area and without missing a beat I hopped back on one of the upraised blocks of stone marking the perimeter, using the extra leverage and height to drive my blade in past her guard. She ducked and flinched away, barely getting out of range in time. Even so, the very tip of my blade tapped her practice armor.

"That's enough," Zhar said from the sidelines. His face was a mask, but I could see the twitch of the muscles beneath his skin and knew that he was tense. Why, I did not know.

Danika and I relaxed, lowered our blades limply to our sides, and bowed to each other in the traditional acknowledgement that the practice fight was over. It might have gone on for much longer if Zhar had not called us off. Sometimes Danika won, and sometimes I did, but more often than not it was a draw. Although Danika preferred the blade, we were evenly matched, at least most of the time. I was more likely to give into her will at the end, relinquishing the credit for the fight to her. She was like that, Danika was. She had a look in her eyes that made you want to follow her to the edge of the galaxy and beyond without fear.

Outside of the practice arena, I knew better than to look in her eyes when they were lit with that particular light.

Zhar nodded at the two of us. "It is good that you already know how to use a blade well," he said. "You will be able to use that to your advantage with a lightsaber if you can compensate for the difference in weight and balance. There is not time to teach you some of the proper forms. After you build your own lightsabers you will learn how to use them to deflect blaster bolts, but until Bastila can instruct you properly you will likely be falling back onto your skills with a more ordinary blade."

Danika nodded politely, a single strand of sleek black hair falling in front of her face as she did so. "Your wisdom is noted, Master," she said. She didn't like to say it, but she had committed herself to this course of becoming a Jedi, and as we both knew it would go quicker and more smoothly if we made as few ripples as possible.

Zhar nodded in acknowledgement of Danika's words. "Go and clean yourselves up," he said. "Lunch will be soon, and after that Bastila will show you to the archives."

We went without another word to the locker rooms. They held a separate section for females and males but other than that beings of all sizes, shapes, and ages mingled freely. Not that there was anyone aside from Danika and I in the female section. Apparently it was not the traditional time of day that Jedi practiced combat around here.

There were a few full 'freshers in the locker room but mostly there were two rows of just cleansers, all of which I was relieved to see were outfitted with all the trappings for the shower setting. I used one with gusto, filled with energy from the fight. I even hummed to myself a little of my favorite spacer song, ignoring my rumbling stomach as I went.

When I got out of the cleaner, my hair wet and my skin sensitive from being scrubbed, Danika was not so inclined. She took one look at my belly, which grumbled loudly, and grabbed my arm to steer me to the cafeteria. "I hope the food's good," I said as I let her drag me without resistance.

Danika snorted. "And when did bad food ever stop you? I swear you'd eat a mynock if it was cooked and put on a plate in front of you."

"What's wrong with having a healthy appetite?" I asked with a grin that her turned head couldn't see.

Danika said nothing; she merely continued to lead me by the arm to the cafeteria. I thought that she might be using her finding ability to get there, but she did not have the cock of the head and the smooth gait that characterized her use of it. She simply just seemed to know where to go.

It was as if she had been here before. I reclaimed my arm before she felt me shudder.

My stomach roiled with hunger and a sick feeling that had nothing to do with the need for food. There was no doubt about it, Danika and I had both been here before. I didn't know when, or why, or even how I knew. I just _knew_, bone deep, like I knew where my legs were without having to look. I swallowed hard on my stomach and stuffed that knowledge down into the depth of my mind as far as it would go. I didn't have to be paranoid unjustly about being found out now for the Council had told Danika and I that we were linked with Bastila. That link meant that anything I knew was subject to her review, at least as far as I understood it. I would have to learn as much as I could about the bond we shared without giving anything away. I needed to know exactly what I was dealing with if I were to keep my secrets.

* * *

Danika and I had elected to eat dinner on the _Hawk_ with the rest of our motley group, having had our fill of the Jedi themselves and Jedi related things for the day. We had been made to sit still and meditate in the library for a few hours, during which Danika had sat stiffly and fought to keep still. I had slipped into it easily, finding it very similar to the state of mind I had assumed whenever I had taken night watch on the bridge of the _Urusai_.

After meditation Bastila had given Danika and I reading material from the Enclave's archive and left us alone to 'read and contemplate the wisdom of Masters past.' We had tried it for about twenty minutes before taking the holo books back to the _Hawk_ and departing our separate ways. Danika had taken her long barreled blaster and a bag full of stray objects for targets. She'd be at it for a while, I knew.

I had given some more attention to the reading material. It was interesting, if vague, and strangely familiar. That feeling was almost becoming second nature to me now and I found it strangely easy to set it to the side and simply let it be. I wasn't ignoring it necessarily; I couldn't, not fully. But I wasn't consciously acknowledging it and I was hoping that by doing so I wouldn't alert my bond-mates to the feeling.

But after a while I grew tired of reading and I went to find Canderous. He was in the _Ebon Hawk's_ garage, cleaning and upgrading his guns. He smiled when he saw me, as strange an expression on the big Mandalorian's face as on Hestra's. I offered a wide smile back, happy to see him.

I grabbed a chair and moved it over next to Canderous, dropping into it with a sigh. "Rough day?" Canderous asked, turning his attention back to his rifle.

"No, just a long one," I replied. "I got to spar with Danika though. That was fun; we haven't gotten the chance to do it in a while. The rest of it was all sitting and reading." I made a face at that and Canderous chuckled even though he couldn't see it.

"Sounds just like Jedi to me," he said. "They always were more monks than soldiers."

I made an exasperated sound. "And now I'm training to be one. I agree with Danika, the Council definitely knows something they're not telling. But at the same time I wish I didn't have to jump through all these hoops to get at it. I feel like a damn circus animal."

"Well you're definitely an animal," the Mandalorian said wickedly, "but I don't think you belong in a circus."

I shoved him gently on the shoulder. "I take it that means you don't want to sleep on the _Hawk_ tonight."

Canderous left his rifle, turned, and gathered me onto his lap. I went willingly, wrapping my arms about his shoulders and settling myself comfortably. "I'd rather sleep next to you than smell that Wookie all night," he said, still grinning. Zaalbar may have been young but he was a good fighter and he didn't fool around about it like some did. Canderous respected him for that, like any good Mandalorian, so I knew he was only teasing.

I chuckled deep in my throat and leaned in for a kiss. I smelled gun oil on his skin and sweat, a strangely heady mix. "You know Bastila's been appointed our keeper," I said when we came up for air. "I don't think she'd take kindly to finding us like this."

"And what does she matter?" Canderous asked. "Let her find us. Danika's stronger than she looks, and a good fighter too, if her physique is any indicator. She can handle the Jedi on her own."

I made a derisive noise in my throat. "I can't. Somebody's got to keep her from throttling Bastila when she gets fed up. She hasn't yet, but I know her pretty well. She will sooner rather than later."

Canderous sighed but made no move to get me out of his lap. "You always were loyal to a fault," he said, his eyes soft in that way that would have surprised the rest of the crew.

I leaned my forehead against his and exhaled in a long, slow sigh. "I wish I could remember," I said quietly.

"You will," Canderous replied, gently but firmly. I smiled at him, enjoying the strength and closeness of him. I certainly didn't want to be kicked out of the Jedi Order for this before I even really got started but at the same time it was such a source of strength and peace that I was very unwilling to give it up.

Something had happened to me. Canderous had lost me and thought me dead, and I had apparently survived. I had likely faked my death, but I could not imagine what would have ever made me leave this man that loved me so much and whom I loved in return. In time, I supposed, I would find out.

But not today.

* * *

To Be continued…

8


	19. Chapter 19

Gone For Good Chapter 19; Craft

**Chapter 19 **

**Lathe **

A shadow loomed over me, blocking out Dantooine's sun. It was accompanied by a very familiar voice. "Git u' ye lazy bum," Hestra told me. "Th' Council wan's t' see ye."

Canderous stirred next to me and raised his head out from under the blanket. He gave a broad grin to the old veteran. "And they've got you running errands for them now?" he asked, seemingly in good humor from our night under the stars. We'd been sleeping out there for the past week or so, but it wasn't like no one knew what we were doing or where we were doing it. I wasn't surprised to see Hestra here.

"Nope," Hestra answered Canderous. "Jus' makin' sure th' girls sta' ou' o' tr'ble."

"For your information I am a grown woman," I replied archly as I put on my boots. I did not add that I was perfectly capable of keeping myself out of trouble because my track record proved beyond words that I couldn't. So instead I stood up to put on my outer tunic and my belt.

Canderous chuckled. "I can attest to that," he said. I snorted at the comment and snickered. He most definitely could attest to my womanhood.

Hestra's moss green eyes were hard as she observed us. There was a tightness in the lines around her eyes and mouth; some old pain, I thought. "Yer lucky Bazz hann't caugh' wind o' thi'," she said.

"And what's she going to do about it if she does find out?" I asked. "She and the Council have been walking on eggshells ever since Danika and I started training." It was true. Every time Danika or I found one of them unexpectedly they gave a little jump and looked at us with nervous eyes, as if they were children who'd been into the kitchens without permission. And they always seemed to be talking to Bastila in secret, breaking off the conversation if Danika or I arrived or passed by.

Hestra made a huffing noise. "Bes' git goin' anyway," she said, her eyes and face still hard but her voice soft. She turned and left without another word.

"Huh. I wonder what's up with her," I said to Canderous as I strapped on the thigh strap for my hip holster.

The Mandalorian made an indiscriminate noise in his throat, kept his face carefully blank, and gave no answer.

* * *

Canderous and I weren't the only love birds about. When I went searching out Danika I found her haranguing Carth in the _Ebon Hawk's_ cockpit.

"Yes, but if you let off the thrusters too soon you could send the ship into free fall," Carth was saying from the pilot's chair.

"Not if you do it right," Danika replied, her face perfectly straight. Unlike Carth she was splayed out in the co-pilot's chair, her feet resting on a free space on the console. One leg was casually thrown over the other.

Carth narrowed his eyes at my old smuggling partner in a clear expression of frustration. He opened his mouth to make his counter argument but did not begin his thought, for he had noticed me out of the corner of his eye. "Oh," he said. "Hi Sabine."

"Hi, Carth," I replied. I turned to look at Danika. "Hestra said the Council wants to see us."

"I know," Danika said calmly. I imagine she did. She did not seem surprised to see me, but then again I had not expected her to be. Ever since we had been learning more about the Force and how to feel it our bond had steadily become clearer. We always knew when one of our bond mates was near.

As for her knowledge of what the Council wanted, Danika had likely felt Bastila looking for her. She had probably then masked her position from the Padawan, who would only have hunted for her harder, and then extracted from that pattern what Bastila was up to. She was only ever that determined to find us when the Council was after something from us.

"Well if you know already then you should also know we ought to head over there before Bastila has a seizure or something," I replied, placing fisted hands on my hips just above my belt.

Danika sighed and swung her feet of the console. "Looks like we'll have to continue this later, Flyboy," she said to Carth. He gave her a strange look that was somewhere between a smile and a grimace and waved.

I turned and left the _Hawk's_ cockpit, weaving my way through the twisty hallway past the small communications room and into the main hold. There was a small kitchenette along one wall complete with a preserver, a holo table in the middle of the room, and a bank of chairs flanking it along the opposite side from the kitchenette. I walked around the table and promptly turned left for the exit ramp, which was lowered as it always was when someone was present on the ship.

"So," I said as Danika and I descended the exit ramp. "Carth Onasi, huh?"

Danika shrugged. "I like poking at him." She said nothing more, but she wore her pazzak face even though she should have known better than to use it on me. I could feel that it was more than that in faint glimmers of emotion and the ghosts of thought through our bond.

Despite what I could feel I did not press my old friend. She obviously didn't want to talk about it and I knew from past experience that it never did any good to try and force her to.

* * *

"The two of you have made remarkable progress in the last week," Zhar said. "We have decided it is time for the next step in your training. Today, you will make your first lightsabers." The red Twi'lek spoke formally as if it pained him and there was a guarded look in his eyes. Next to him Vandar's face was the usual mask of calm that he always wore, though Vrook looked tired and Dorak wouldn't look at me directly. Danika and I blinded ourselves to their reactions in order to conceal our own reactions to them and to Bastila.

During the last week of our training we had worked together to test Bastila's accuracy at reading us through our bond. The results were strangely straightforward; Bastila could read us fairly accurately up close, but the further away she got from us the less she could pick up. We couldn't avoid her without gaining undue notice so we had to school ourselves sharply every time she was near.

There wasn't much more to the meeting. Each of the Council members spoke about how important a lightsaber was and how it was the symbol of the Jedi and an honored tradition. I listened with only half an ear, paying more attention to the body language of each Master and holding myself apart from how I felt about those reactions. Bastila, I noted with suppressed interest, was doing much the same.

After the Council was done with their speech we followed Zhar into a separate room. Like the rest of the Enclave it was decorated plainly but the architecture was graceful and allowed for natural light to illuminate the space freely. Unlike the rest of the Enclave this room had a layer of extra padding in the middle of the floor and there were no live plants that I could see. There was a small workbench on one side of the room that was covered with odd bits and ends. My experienced mechanic's eye told me that they belonged to no kind of droid or piece of machinery that I knew. A little thrill went through me as I registered that.

These were parts for lightsabers.

The thought spread a warm feeling through my body. It started in my chest and flowed like water to my extremities, making my knees feel weak and my stomach churn. My fingers twitched slightly as a phantom memory of cool metal against my fingers passed across the back of my mind in a flicker. The smell of burnt ozone caught in my nose, but no matter how discreetly I checked out the room I could see no source for it.

"There are three main components to a lightsaber that are the most important parts of the weapon," Zhar began. He collected several bits from the workbench and then approached us. He held them out for us and we each took a piece. Danika took one, as if reluctant to touch them. I took the remaining two, restraining the surge of joy in my chest and focusing on keeping my hands from shaking. Fortunately I had gotten much practice in the art of hiding my feelings during the past week and a half. It helped that such had been part of the Jedi training Danika and I were receiving, for the Order believed that strong emotions, especially ones such as love, fear, and anger led to the dark side. Because of this, they said, all good Jedi must learn to control what they felt in order to avoid such a fate.

The parts I held in my hand were a small convex lens and an uncut crystal. It was still in the shape in which it had grown, a long cylinder with flat sides and ends that tapered up into a many sided pyramid. It was clear and had a faint yellow tint. I looked over at the part in Danika's hand and saw that she held a small mechanical part. _Power cell_, something in me whispered.

Zhar indicated my hand as he continued. "Sabine holds the lens and the focusing crystal used to control and form the blade of the lightsaber into its desired shape. Danika holds the power cell. These are not the only parts of a lightsaber but they are the most difficult to replace because they are produced only by the Order."

The Twi'lek Jedi Master went on to show us the many parts that went into the construction of a lightsaber. There was a datapad provided for each of us that had the schematics laid out. "You do not have to complete your lightsabers today," he said. "However you are free from your regular training until you do." With that, Zhar left and we were alone with the plain room and its workbench.

Danika frowned at the parts, her midnight blue eyes intense. "We've done this before," she said quietly.

"Yes," I replied. "We've certainly been saying that a lot lately, haven't we?"

Danika snorted, the corner of her mouth quirking up into a half smile. "Heh," she said. "Yeah."

* * *

"…So I'm pretty sure this part goes _here_…" I placed said part right over where I wanted to put it so that Mission could clearly see.

The teenager consulted the datapad in her hand and then leaned over my hand with a critical frown. "The schematics say it's supposed to go _here_," she said, indicated a completely different area with one slender blue finger.

I pursed my lips, my head hurting and threatening to do the two-way split that it had done back on Taris at the cantina. I sighed and rubbed my face vigorously with both hands, digging my palms into my eyes slightly. "I know," I replied. I sighed and stretched one arm across my chest, putting the hand from my other arm on the elbow to stretch the shoulder. "I'm just so _sure_ that it's not supposed to go where I showed you."

Mission turned the datapad upside down and frowned at it. "You think the Jedi would give you faulty schematics?" she asked.

"It's definitely not that," I answered.

Mission looked up from the datapad, her warm brown eyes serious as she regarded me. There were new lines in her face that hadn't been there when I had first met her and she looked tired even though I knew for a fact that she had been getting entirely too much sleep recently. "Well they said you didn't have to have it finished by today, right?" She said after a few tense moments of silence. "So put the part where you think it should go and see what happens."

I picked up the part in question and turned it over in my hand and felt as if I was seeing it for the first time instead of the twenty-odd something time. "Huh," I said. "I didn't think of that."

For the first time since the bombardment of Taris Mission smiled, even if it was only the ghost of a smile. "Well that's what I'm here for, isn't it? I swear you people would forget your heads if they weren't attached to your necks." The humor in the young Twi'lek's voice was tired and forced, but the fact that it was there at all was a very good sign. I gave her a small smile back and fitted the part into the lightsaber.

It was the last piece. After it was securely in place I fitted the casing material over it, waiting for the soft click that announced that it was firmly secured to the rest of the weapon. There was a dead silence then, made hollow by the soft sounds of the _Ebon Hawk_ as its off-line systems cycled. My own breath was loud in my ears and I listened to it a few beats before I turned in the chair, gripped the weapon securely, and aimed it both away from my body and away from Mission. I paused there, confused for a brief second as my hands distinctly recalled the feeling of a hilt similar to the one I was holding only it was one that was warm from the machinery working within. A low phantom hum hovered at the edge of my hearing and was accompanied once again by the smell of burnt ozone. I forced my will past those sensations with a feeling somewhat similar to vertigo and pressed the button.

A three-foot blade of pure energy sprung from the hilt in my hand. Suddenly the smell and the sound were no longer phantom but real and the blue hue lit the _Hawk_'s garage eerily. I experienced the strongest bout of Déjà vu I had had since landing on Dantooine and the sensation made me shiver despite the comfortably warm air.

"Wow," Mission said quietly. "That's so _cool_."

Her voice centered me in reality and chased the feeling of Déjà vu away like a cloth to cobwebs. I looked over and saw that her eyes were wide and fixed on the humming blade. Her lekku undulated slowly in fascination and her face once again fit her age. I lingered on the sight, knowing that these moments were rare.

"Yeah," I replied as I turned back to observe the blade. I moved it in a few simple patterns, testing the weight and feel of the hilt. "I guess I was right about that part after all."

"You gonna go show it off to Dani?" Mission asked. Danika had been forcibly dragging the teenager out of the _Hawk_ ever since we had landed, taking her turn at looking after the youngster as Hestra, her, and myself had. She had fallen into using nicknames for all of us and treating us much the same as she did Zaalbar. I didn't like to think she was fixating on our strange and often dysfunctional group for her new family, but I understood why and did not fight it. The kid needed a group of people to love and be loved by in return. Since we were essentially the reason she had lost her original 'family' in the first place I felt it was somewhat appropriate.

"No," I told Mission. "I'm going to build a second one." The sentence was out of my mouth before I knew it and once it was there I couldn't take it back. Why had I said that?

Mission blinked. "Really? Didn't it take you, like, all day to make this one?"

"Well, yeah," I replied with a slightly annoyed tone. It was mostly for show because I was scrambling for an answer to that very question myself. Why did I want to build a _second_ lightsaber when the first one had given me so much grief? The only thing that I could think of was that I either intended to fight with two lightsabers at once, a risky and difficult style from what I had seen since coming to the Enclave, or to have one as a backup in case the first one was destroyed or lost.

I was saved from having to voice my confusion by Carth walking into the room, his cleaning case and blasters in hand. He stopped and stared at my lightsaber. "Wow," he said. "Uh… that looks really good…"

"Eh," I said with pursed lips. "Thanks. But I still don't see the point of making one in the first place. Dani and I aren't going to be nearly trained enough to use them effectively before we leave anyway."

"Why do we have to leave in the first place?" Carth asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. It didn't matter that I had been telling him about all the goings on with the Council.

I deactivated the lightsaber and placed it on the work bench beside me shrugging as I did so. "They won't say the real reason. What they are saying is that Malak will catch up eventually, that we need to do our duty for the Republic, and so on. Honestly I stopped paying attention after the first twenty seconds of useless blather."

Mission snickered. Being as young as she was she had been on the receiving end of some of that blather herself. A few Padawans she had encountered while out with Hestra, Danika, or me had in turn been on the receiving end of her very sharp tongue. After the first time it had happened while Mission was out with Danika the black-haired smuggler-turned-Jedi had told Hestra and I to try and let it happen more often as it seemed to make Mission feel better.

Carth relaxed at my words. "So you think they're not being completely honest?" he asked.

I snorted sharply. "Corellian hells, no," I said with much feeling behind the sentence. "And they speak in riddles all the time anyway, so I can't ever tell for sure!"

Carth let his mouth slide into a reluctant smile and he made a single, short chuckle-snort noise of agreement. "I see what you mean."

"So how's Dani?" I asked.

Carth's mahogany eyes deepened at the sound of her name. "She hasn't finished yet," he said.

"Heh, she's going to be miffed when she finds I've already finished mine." I smiled like a cat that had just eaten a small bird, savoring the image the words brought to my mind. Danika and I liked to compete with each other. I knew that the Jedi would call it pride and discourage it, but what they didn't know would hurt them. And besides it was a pleasant past time for two space faring drifters like us.

Carth made a soft huffing noise in his throat and I moved my chair to the side of the workbench and bunch the splayed lightsaber parts to the same side. Carth grabbed a spare chair and sat down, arranging his blasters and cleaning case in a semi-organized pile. I could see in that pattern that he had been fully organized once, that he had cared what others thought when they looked at it. Such was not the case now.

I turned away from the Republic pilot and began assembling a second lightsaber, discovering as I did so that there were exactly enough spare parts for what I intended. My throat worked in a sound of surprise I did not fully vocalize and my mouth quirked in an ironic half smile. Mission stayed silent at my back, fiddling with the datapad.

Carth worked at cleaning his blasters, taking them apart and putting them back together with all the care and respectful delicacy of one who loved his weapons. All the while I assembled my second lightsaber, this one with a blue crystal. Mission eventually pulled off her stealth unit and small blaster and both Carth and I made room for her at the workbench. It was somewhat crowded but I didn't mind and when I looked over at Carth I saw that his shoulders were relaxed and his body leaned imperceptivity towards the teenager. He was so comfortable with her near that I was sure that he had raised a child or two himself.

As I turned my attention back to my second lightsaber I thought sadly if he had lost the child at the same time he had lost his wife. It was a sad thought and one that made me hope that Danika would follow through this time instead of balking and turning tail just at the finish line.

* * *

To Be Continued…

8


	20. Chapter 20

Gone For Good Chapter 20; Cairn

**Chapter 20**

**Cairn **

"…So you made _two_?" Danika asked with a deep frown about her brows. She had completed her own lightsaber which was now hanging down off one side of her belt. Its blade was silver.

"Yeah," I answered deadpan.

Midnight blue eyes met mine with a critical irony. " 'Yeah?' That's all you have to say for yourself?"

I shrugged. "Mission helped," I volunteered.

Danika threw her head back and laughed, a brief, harsh sound. "Mission helped! Oh, they'd just_ love _that."

I snorted and bristled defensively even though I knew Danika was only teasing. "Like we'd get more than a slap on the hand anyway," I said and let my voice take on a bit of an edge.

Danika's eyes narrowed and her brow furrowed in another frown. It was becoming more of a habit for her than smiling these days. "That's really starting to irritate me," she said.

"I know what you mean," I replied. "But I get the feeling that if we try to investigate it directly things won't turn out so well."

Danika's gaze lifted from the ground to hold my own. She was shorter than me by nearly half a foot, five foot one inch to my five foot seven inches. But the height difference didn't matter; she had always been able to pierce through to my soul with those eyes and make my heart go cold from intimidation.

"There's more of them than there are of us," she said quietly. It was a line that we had used between ourselves many times before and it was usually followed by a blind, desperate charge into an enemy assault. But this time was different, I knew.

"And there's so much they're not telling us," I added just as quietly. "You remember all those stories we heard back in the fleet about what the Jedi can do with the Force."

Danika nodded, her intense midnight blue gaze slipping away from mine like rain of a well oiled cloak. My whole body relaxed afterward as if it had been holding its breath under those eyes. "Well," she said, her voice hard. "We are Jedi now. For better or worse."

"For better or worse," I agreed, and we left it at that.

* * *

"Ugh," I murmured. I held up the Jedi-style tunic to my chest with my nose wrinkled in disgust. After spending my time with the Republic Armed Forces jeering at those who wore such tunics I was reluctant to put one on myself.

Canderous chuckled, gently rubbing my lower back from where he lay on the self same blanket that I was sitting on. The touch sent a shiver up my spine and caused a pool of warmth to form in my belly. My heart fluttered and I reveled in the simple sensation of skin-on skin. I hadn't been that close to anyone in a long, long time. "You look good in anything, _cyar'ika_," he said.

"Mmm, thanks for the vote of confidence," I replied. "This whole Jedi thing still doesn't sit right with me, though."

"Good. I'd be worried if it did." Canderous' tone was straightforward but still warm. When I turned to look at him his face was set in that calm, settled expression he usually wore around me when we were alone together. I could read no deeper emotion there but I wasn't surprised. Canderous was one of the only people I couldn't read.

I sighed and turned away, my gaze traveling over the grass-filled landscape. Over one of the gentle hills was the Jedi Enclave and the _Ebon Hawk_ resting on its duracrete landing pad. I'd have to go back eventually. "I really wish I could just storm in there and demand some answers," I said.

Canderous' hand moved higher and he gently kneaded the tight muscles in my upper back. I leaned back into it, making a pleased noise in my throat. "I agree," he said. "I prefer to fight my battles straightforward as well. But what choice do you have with these Jedi? In my experience they're never straightforward."

I reached over and rested a hand on his bare chest. The ridges of old scars crisscrossed it, and I fingered them idly. "You've seen your fair share of battles," I said.

"So have you," Canderous replied, tracing some of the scars on my back. The skin there was smooth as glass and extra sensitive, so I thrummed quietly underneath his touch.

"I don't remember," I told him. And it was true. My memory told me that most of my scars had been earned in bar fights or industrial accidents, but I knew that they couldn't be accurate. Especially not since Canderous seemed to have fought beside me at some point. That implied that I had been in a battle or two.

"You will," Canderous reassured me. He rolled over onto his side and kissed his way up my spine slowly. I shivered, leaning my head back and closing my eyes. I dropped the Jedi tunic at my side.

"I hope you're right," I told the Mandalorian. It was the last coherent thing I said for a while.

* * *

Twilight was beginning to settle into full darkness by the time Canderous and I walked off the plains and onto the duracrete landing platform. The _Hawk_ rose above us, silent and sleek. There was no one to see us arrive except for a maintenance droid, sweeping the platform with an attachment and beeping to itself idly. I felt languid despite being hungry. My body felt loose, as if my bones weren't really there. I was smiling to myself as I followed Canderous up the access ramp.

Good smells hit my nose as soon as Canderous and I came out of the short hallway that housed the exit ramp. I took a deep, appreciative sniff and half closed my eyes.

When Canderous and I came into the main hold it was fairly crowded. Zaalbar and Danika stood around the kitchenette dicing this or stirring that. They argued a bit about how to spice everything, Danika plucking at the Wookie's fur lightly as she spoke. Personally I didn't think that was a very good idea but Zaalbar was ignoring it for the moment. I wasn't so sure any of the rest of us good get away with it.

Hestra and Carth were seated at the bank of chairs across from the kitchenette and thus wisely out of the way. Mission sat cross legged in front of T3 and was fiddling with something in the cylinder of his body while he beeped at her. As Canderous and I entered the room his disc shaped head swiveled, the light in the front of it changing from red to blue. He whistled a greeting at me.

And perched awkwardly on the chair furthest from Carth and Hestra, observing her surroundings with some trepidation, was Bastila. "Hey, Princess," I said to her.

Bastila gave me an uncertain smile as if she was debating whether or not to protest the nickname. She eyed Canderous warily, for he had not spent much time in the vicinity of the Enclave and thus she hadn't had time to get used to him. "Hello," she said.

Canderous grunted and headed off for the starboard dormitories, which had been adopted for the male members of our rag tag group. I took a loud sniff in the direction of the kitchenette. "How's it coming, Dani?" I asked.

"_That's too much!"_ Zaalbar protested as she added a dash of some kind of spice to a dish.

"Just fine!" Danika called as she dodged the paw that tried to grab little can of spice from her. "It'll be up shortly!" I grinned at the ensuing dance between her and Zaalbar, he trying to snatch the can and her ducking and weaving around him in the small space available and putting a dash in this dish or that as she played keep away.

I walked over and plunked down on the chair next to Bastila. I smiled at her. "So what brings you to these parts? I don't think I've seen you foot a foot on this old bucket since we landed."

Something crashed and Zaalbar howled but I didn't turn to look. As long as no one was screaming and I couldn't smell blood, they would be fine. "Hey! I was using that!" Danika protested.

"_You use too much!_" Zaalbar howled. "_Now it will be ruined!_"

Hestra laughed and Carth murmured something about Danika needing to be more careful. I ignored them, as well as Danika's continuing argument with Zaalbar, in favor of seeing the play of emotion across Bastila's face. There was mild horror at first after the crash and then a look somewhere between disbelief and confusion. She looked over at me with uncertain eyes. "Is that… _safe?_" she asked me.

I finally looked over and saw that several pans hanging on the wall over the kitchenette had been knocked down. Zaalbar had a pleading look on his face as he argued with Danika, holding the little can of spice high over his head. She had a wicked gleam in her eye and was stretched up all the way on her tiptoes, her arms extended to their full length as she tried to retrieve the can. She was nearly laughing as she counter-argued with the young Wookie. I cracked a wide smile myself and fought not to start laughing. Zaalbar was much taller than the average humanoid and Danika was much shorter, which made the two of them together like this simply hilarious.

"She's just having a bit of fun," I told Bastila. I turned back to her and quirked an eyebrow upwards. "You _have_ heard of fun haven't you?"

Because I was in such a good mood it was highly entertaining to see the young brunette so flustered. I could feel it through our bond as well; my pleasure increased by the fact that at this close of a range Bastila could feel my amusement clearly. "But it's not right to antagonize a Wookie like that!" she protested. "It's un-Jedi-like!"

I snorted. "Please, fun makes dealing with rougher emotions like anger and fear easier. Isn't that what being a Jedi is all about? Controlling your emotions? Let Danika have her fun. If what the Council keeps saying is true and we do have to run from Malak, she's not going to have much of a chance to have fun in the future."

At the mention of the Sith Lord Bastila settled and immediately sobered, her expression settling into a brooding frown. The bond between her and I closed down like a door, shutting out nearly everything except the simple awareness that she was there at all. "I suppose you have a point," she said in an even tone.

Danika came over then and eyed Bastila critically. "You okay, kiddo?" she asked the Padawan. I noted that Zaalbar had settled into cooking without her, but didn't seem either satisfied that she was out of the kitchenette area nor disgruntled at their earlier game. I had to hold back yet another smile, for I suspected that the young Wookie had enjoyed it almost as much as Danika had.

Bastila shook her head, her mouth twisting and her lips pressing firmly together. "There has been a… disturbance in one of the groves used for meditation. The Council has asked us to investigate it."

"Hm, what kind of disturbance?" I asked.

Bastila gave me a wry look. "A disturbance of the dark side," she told me, using a tone that doubted my intelligence. "Normally the grove is very peaceful, but now the local wildlife won't approach it and the fields nearby have attracted several kath hound packs that have turned vicious."

Danika sighed. "Well, we don't have to go check it out tonight, do we? It's going to be dark soon and the last thing I want to deal with is vicious kath hounds at night."

I thought wryly that it wouldn't be a problem for me, what with my ability to shape-shift and all, and was immediately thankful that both Danika and Bastila were so intent upon each other and the task that the Council had set us to notice my thought. I had been meaning to practice shape-shifting but as of yet hadn't had the time nor the right excuse to go far enough away from either of them so that they couldn't pick up on what I was dong through our bond.

"Does this grove have ruins in it?" Danika asked as she perched on the edge of the holo table. I looked at her sharply, for I knew she was thinking about the dream she, Bastila, and I had shared of Revan and Malak just after arriving on Dantooine. The Council and Bastila hadn't mentioned it since initially getting us started in training, but I knew they'd bring it up sooner rather than later. Just because I had that hunch however was no reason to bring up the subject prematurely.

"A few, though not the one's you are thinking of," Bastila answered, her thoughts clearly traveling along the same path as mine. "This grove holds an ancient cairn and a few pillars, but nothing more."

"Sounds lovely," I said dryly. I leaned forward in my chair, propped my chin in one hand with my elbow on my knee, and looked at Danika with a suffering, bored expression. "You want to check it out tomorrow morning?"

Danika shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"I'm coming as well," Bastila said, some of her control around her bond slipping and showing just how flustered she was.

"Of course," Danika replied as she hopped down from her seat on the holo table. "The Council wanted all three of us to investigate it, didn't they?" She did not leave the Padawan time to answer as she turned and strolled back over to the kitchenette. There was not anything left for her to do however since Zaalbar was beginning to dole out portions of the food out onto plates.

I stood up in order to retrieve my own plate. "Don't get your undies in a bundle, Princess," I told Bastila. "Dani and I were a team long before you showed up. It'll take a while to get used to you." She said nothing in response but clamped down on her end of the bond tight and turned her face away. I frowned then, for I had thought that I saw the barest welling of a tear in her eye and read an expression of hurt on her face. But I was already walking towards the kitchenette and could not stop without looking painfully obvious and silly. So I kept moving towards the rich smell of good food and tried to put Bastila out of my mind.

* * *

To Be Continued…

6


	21. Chapter 21

Gone For Good Chapter 21; Fallen

**Chapter 21**

**Fallen**

Dantooine's grass made a soft noise beneath my feet as I walked. It was not the dry brittle crunch of the half-dead grass of Taris' Undercity and rose to chest height in some places. It waved and rustled in the wind.

Danika walked by my side while Bastila walked ahead of us. Danika and I were carrying our blaster rifles across our chests, safeties off. We ran just as heavily armed now as we had back on Taris, with the exception that we were only carrying one rifle each with modified straps. They would secure the weapons solidly to our backs so that they would not restrict our movements if we had to draw our lightsabers. Said Jedi weapons hung from our belts just as Bastila's double blade did. I still had my hip holster and my knives as well.

We were just past the hills surrounding the Enclave and obviously not close to the grove yet. I knew this because there was a small herd of thune grazing nearby. One massive, large eared head came up as we passed, its long trunk lifting to pick our scent out of the wind. Its eyes were small and dark, lost in the folds of dark blue-gray skin. As its trunk lifted I could see the white gleam of tusks and tried to radiate calm feelings at the beast through the Force. I did not want it or its herd mates to charge us.

Bastila turned her head slightly as I did my thing but I did not let her distract me. I wasn't sure whether it worked or not, but the thune lumbered to a slightly different grazing spot and lowered its head once again so it was not an issue any longer anyway. "Well done," Bastila said softly.

I blinked at the back of her head. "It worked?" I asked, keeping my own voice soft so as not to disturb the nearby herd of large herbivores.

"Yes," the brunette answered. She said nothing more as we forded into a patch of taller grass. I opened my senses wide, alert for the extra vicious kath hounds that Bastila had mentioned. Even so I was not overly worried. The thune herd had enough younglings with them that they would not be so relaxed if predators were nearby.

"Gah!" Danika exclaimed quietly. "This is ridiculous! I don't understand why we had to walk instead of taking a swoop bike."

I chuckled in low tones. "Not our fault you're short, Smartass," I told her. She snarled back in a wordless response.

Bastila sighed ahead of us but said nothing. She was keeping her end of the bond closed again so I could not accurately gauge her feelings behind the sigh. It sounded suffering but the line of her shoulders was held strangely loose, as if she were comfortable with the situation. I couldn't fathom why, and Danika's low grumbles as she whacked at the long grass kept me occupied enough that I did not knaw on the issue overmuch.

* * *

It took some time to get to the grove but once we began to draw close it became obvious. The grass changed to a shorter variety that only came up to the knees and was of a much darker green hue. Heaps of stone rose from the earth occasionally and could have been anything from natural formations to degraded pillars. They were simply too worn to tell.

Normally Dantooine was thick with wildlife. From the larger herbivores like the thune and the pikets to their predators to smaller ground-dwelling birds and mammals, even a few species of tiny lizards that liked to scale the tall grasses to sun themselves. All of these myriad creatures should have been making noise but as we closed in towards the grove silence fell like a veil over the area. There was a strange weight to the air, a heaviness that pressed in on the heart and mind. I took an immediate dislike to it, but at the same time it had a sickly sweet quality to it and caused thoughts to stray. _Perhaps just a little taste_, it whispered. _Just one won't hurt._

My whole body gave a violent shudder followed by smaller ones at regular intervals. "I don't like it," I said out loud. The words came out of me involuntarily and sounded disgustingly close to a whine.

Danika had gone utterly still by me, both in her body and internally as well from what I could feel through our bond. Her hands were clutching her rifle so tight that the knuckles had turned white. "I know," she gritted out through clenched teeth.

Bastila threw a worried glance over her shoulder. "We'll be there soon," she said. "Be alert for kath hounds."

I snorted softly at the Padawan and Danika snarled. We continued forward until the piles of standing stones became more frequent and then Bastila suddenly stopped. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "But from here, you must continue alone."

"What? Why?" Danika demanded, the whole of her tiny body bristled with indignation.

Bastila looked down, a smart move considering how intense Danika was right now. "I'm truly sorry but I have explicit orders from the Council." She hesitated then and looked away from us. When she looked back and spoke again she did so without meeting our eyes directly. "Remember; a Jedi acts with patience and care and those lost on the dark path are not always lost forever."

"What in a Corellian Hell is that supposed to mean?" Danika asked, throwing one arm wide.

But it was clear that Bastila wasn't going to budge, her bond had opened up enough to allow that much through at least. Danika snarled angrily and stormed past the brunette. I followed at a more sedate pace and glanced over at Bastila as I passed her. Her eyes were downcast and her brow furrowed. The lines of the muscles in her face indicated that she was in great pain, but where that feeling came from or why I did not know and there was no way to find out, not since she had closed down her side of the bond again as soon as Danika had moved beyond her.

"Good luck, Princess," I said quietly as I passed. "See you later." She said nothing to me in reply but as I approached a large standing stone and had passed from what Bastila might consider my hearing range I could have sworn I heard a small sob.

I ignored the sound and kept walking, shifting my grip on my slughthrower. I wanted to help Bastila but there was nothing I could feasibly do. She would not tell me what I wanted to know, even if I asked her point blank. And there was always the fact that every time I thought of asking her directly I got a bone-deep sense of foreboding.

So I kept walking and kept one eye on Danika and one eye on the terrain around me, alert for anything that might come.

* * *

Gradually the standing stones gave way to what might have been a building once. Support columns were clearly visible, as were massive stone slabs that must have been the floor. In the center of the ancient overgrown complex was a heap of huge stones and I presumed this object to be the cairn that Bastila had mentioned. What she had not mentioned was that there would be a woman there.

She was Cathar, tall and dangerously elegant. She had much shorter fur than I had ever seen on a Cathar before and it was of a hue that I was unfamiliar with; a soft gold with dark orange stripes. The only fur on her that grew longer than an inch or so was her orange mane. The sleek length of it was bundled up in a tail at the back of her head, clearly revealing long pointed ears.

The most prominent thing about the Cathar woman was not her looks but the darkness that radiated from her in sickening waves. I braced against it mentally as I would physically against a strong wind and in order to focus I concentrated on studying what the woman was wearing. She was dressed in Jedi armor very similar to what Bastila wore, the main exception being that this armor looked like it was actually meant to do something. It was a bit worn but well cared for and showed none of the sings of having been in real combat. And it was orange, I noted, though thankfully a much deeper and richer shade than Carth's jacket. With the armor the Cathar woman wore pale pants and an under-tunic with leather boots that reached up to her knees. Her belt looked fairly standard for a Jedi, as did the single-bladed lightsaber hanging from it.

Having taken notice of the lightsaber both Danika and I put away our rifles and fastened the straps that would hold them snugly to our bodies. I reached for my left lightsaber, pulling it free from the small clasp that held it to my belt. The tiniest '_snick_' sound accompanied the move.

But it was apparently all the Cathar woman needed. Her long ears twitched and her eyes snapped open, revealing brilliant golden orbs bearing slit pupils. No white showed.

In an instant the woman was on her feet and hissing at us. Danika responded instinctively, taking out her lightsaber and igniting it. The silver hue lit up the grove and gave her skin and hair an eerie cast. I followed her example and lit my own blade, angling it before me in a defensive-ready position. Just as Zhar had predicted I fell instinctively into one of the blade-forms I was already familiar with.

Moving so fast my eyes could not track her the Cathar charged, bringing her own lightsaber to bear as she did. A jolt went through me at the sight of the blood red blade and my stomach did an upsetting flip in my middle. It was gone in a moment as Danika stepped forward and raised her blade to meet our opponent's and I ran to help her. I was not that far away, not relatively speaking, but it was too far when reduced to the faster-than-real time of combat situations.

Danika and the Cathar woman exchanged lighting quick moves. And despite the fact that she was doing fairly well I could tell the Cathar was the inferior fighter. I wondered why Danika was not winning by now.

As I closed in and began to engage the Cathar in tandem with Danika I realized why. This close to its source the darkness was like fighting through thick oil. It made my skin crawl and my nose and mouth wrinkle in disgust. Even so at the same time it made me hunger for something I couldn't name, something I could only get if I killed the golden-eyed woman before me.

"_Remember; a Jedi acts with patience and care and those lost on the dark path are not always lost forever._"

Bastila's words came to me from what felt like deep in my soul and was likely the source of our bond. I realized why she had spoken those words to me and felt a faint pang of confirmation through the bond. I met Danika's eyes as briefly as we fought the angry feline between us and felt a flurry of information and feelings exchanged wordlessly through our bond. It was like we had held an entire conversation without speaking a word. We came to the decision to capture the Cathar woman alive and do exactly as the Council had bade us to do through Bastila; investigate.

It was like someone had suddenly destroyed a dam, the power that flowed in from the Force then. The darkness no longer hindered Danika and me and we gained back the edge that we had lost. Soon the Cathar woman was sporting numerous burn wounds and she began to fight more defensively than aggressively. Together Danika and I herded her back until she was pinned against the dark round bulk of the cairn. We did not advance then but held our ground, lightsabers held at the ready but not in an aggressive stance.

Breathing hard, the Cathar woman looked back and forth between Danika and me. She sighed and deactivated her lightsaber, letting it fall to the ground next to her. "You are strong. Stronger than me in my darkness," she said, her accent thick and foreign but elegant as well. It was not Outer, Mid, or Inner Rim as far as I could tell. I wondered if that was the native Cathar accent.

"Who are you?" Danika asked, her voice much steadier than I thought it should have been considering all the very recent physical exertion. "Why are you here?"

"I am Juhani," the Cathar woman answered. "And this is _my _grove. This is _my_ place and you have no right to be here!" Her fur bristled as she spoke and her pupils narrowed with her irritation.

Danika snorted derisively at Juhani's words. "I don't see your name on it," she quipped.

"She's right," I pitched in. "From what we heard this place belongs to no one."

"This is the place I chose as the seat of my dark power," Juhani hissed. "It is _mine_!"

"Dark power? Are you talking about the dark side?" Danika asked. The tone of her voice was odd, as was the stillness I felt through our bond. My head jerked away from Juhani to look at my friend's face. She looked about the same that I had felt all those times I had experienced Déjà vu and for some reason seeing it on her face made me shudder involuntarily.

"I fell when I slew my master, Quatra," Juhani said. "I cannot return now."

I blinked at the woman's words for I had heard nothing of a death among the Jedi recently. Such a thing was rare, even more so the killing of a Knight by her Padawan. I thought back over what Bastila had said and how long ago this might have happened. Not very long, I thought. Certainly not before Danika and I had arrived on Dantooine. "Are you sure she's dead?" I asked Juhani.

The woman's pupils widened with distress and she gestured wildly as she talked. "I struck her down with my lightsaber! How can she not be dead?"

"Sabine's right," Danika said. "Did you feel her die in the Force? We haven't heard about a death among the Jedi here and have felt no disturbances in the Force."

Juhani fell silent and studied us both carefully, her body utterly still in the same way that I had seen large predatory cats do it. Her pupils narrowed and then widened again as she thought. "I… I did not stay, this is true," she said finally.

"Then come back with us," I replied. Danika responded by deactivating her lightsaber and returning it to her belt. I felt a twinge of uncertainty but did not hesitate as I followed my friend's example. Juhani was faster than us physically. She was still close enough to be able to do some serious damage to us before we could draw a weapon. I forced myself not to stare at the long, elegant claws that adorned each of the Cathar's fingers.

The being attached to those claws hesitated, but I could feel the darkness in the Force receding somewhat. "I fell," she said. "They will not take me back."

"How do you know?" Danika asked. "Can you see the future?"

"No," Juhani said reluctantly.

"So what will it hurt to go and see them?" I asked. The darkness continued to recede as Juhani studied Danika and I again. Her eyes settled on me for a little longer than I felt comfortable, her pupils widening slowly. When she finally looked away I realized why she had been staring. I had been holding just as still as she was, that inhuman stillness that was a predator carefully weighing out its situation.

Danika had not noticed; I saw that in a quick glance out of the corner of my vision. Her attention was fully on Juhani. When I looked back at her as well she nodded briefly at us. "I will go with you," she said quietly.

"Uh, what about the grove?" I asked, indicating the ruins that held the cairn.

Juhani glanced back at the place with an uneasy tilt of her shoulders were also strangely relaxed. "It will return to itself once I have gone. I did not spend enough time here to taint it permanently."

"Bastila'll be happy to hear that," Danika said. She turned on her heel then and walked briskly off in the direction we had entered the grove; her gait showing no indication that she had just fought a fallen Jedi. "Come on! Let's go before the kid twists that ridiculous armor into oblivion."

Juhani looked at me, her whole face expressing her surprise. For the first time since meeting her I realized just how young she was, barely older than Bastila. It made me feel old. "Bastila? She is here?" Juhani asked.

"Yeah, didn't you hear?" I replied. Bastila was well known about the Enclave. I'd have thought all the Jedi knew she was on Dantooine.

Apparently Juhani had not. She shook her head to indicate this and before she could add any words to it Danika shouted back at us. "Get a move on, you guys!"

I made a face at Juhani. "I guess we ought to go before she comes back for us," I said. Juhani blinked at me uncertainly so I shrugged and turned to walk after Danika. I heard her follow behind me and resisted the urge to look back at her.

We caught up with Danika quickly; the dark haired smuggler had waited for us. She started walking along with us without a word and for a while we were surrounded in silence and the lingering darkness from the grove. Somewhere in the distance a bird began a call hesitantly, gaining strength as nothing struck it down. Danika's mouth quirked into a smile at the sound and she let loose with the first few lines of the same old spacer song that I had sung on Taris.

"Ohhhh, the stars will never fade; though they may dim with age," I sang. Danika and I matched the pitch and tone of each other's voices with little fuss and after we had gotten nearly halfway through Juhani joined in, hesitating at first, her voice a surprisingly sweet alto. Soon she was singing along in time with us and when the spacer song was done we launched into a hearty drinking song. Juhani proved herself to be able to pick up on the words easily even though I was positive she'd never heard them before.

As if our voices were some sort of signal the wildlife about us came back to itself. I didn't realize it until after the fact, but so did Juhani. Danika was like that though, almost as if she were an anchor and not a living breathing being.

* * *

I'll never forget Bastila's face as we came through a gap between two standing stones singing as if we had not a care in the galaxy. It was just so perfectly shocked.

As soon as she caught sight of the brunette Padawan Juhani fell silent, her mouth closing with an audible snap. She changed the way she carried herself as well so that she seemed shorter and less intimidating. Truth was she was only a few inches taller than me although her body had a look about it that made it appear longer.

Danika and I let the verse of our song trail off into silence shortly after Juhani stopped singing. We stopped a few feet from Bastila, Juhani standing just behind us and staying very quiet. "We're back," I said.

One of Bastila's eyebrows quirked up and her face twisted out of shock and into a pleading kind of horror. "Dancing rancors?" she asked.

Danika shrugged beside me. "It's a drinking song. They're not supposed to make sense. Haven't you ever had a drink before?"

"No!" Bastila said sharply, her body going so straight with indignation I was tempted to see if someone had inserted a pole into her spine.

I chuckled with amusement. "You ought to try it sometime, Princess! Might lighten you up."

"I'll have you know Jedi do not drink!" Bastila declared. "And another thing, where have you been disappearing to at night? No one will tell me! What if I need to find you?"

I snorted and fixed Bastila with my fiercest stare. "In the middle of the night, out _here_? Nothing happens. Besides, you ever wake me up in the middle of the night and no one's bleeding and/or dying I will flay the pride right out of that perky little attitude of yours; is that clear?"

Bastila blanched and rocked back from me a bit. "Yes, ma'am," she squeaked.

"Quit torturing the poor girl," Danika told me with a light smack at the back of my head as she walked past me. She had do a little hop to reach up that high.

I sighed sarcastically as I followed behind my friend. "But it's so much fun! Hey, are you guys coming or what? Isn't the Council going to want to talk to everybody?" I called over my shoulder. Juhani was looking back and forth from myself and Bastila with wide eyes.

Said Jedi Princess sputtered as she followed me, not wanting to provoke me into another verbal flaying but unable to stay silent never-the-less. Juhani began to walk forward as I turned my head forward again.

Danika whistled to herself softly as we began the long-ish walk back to the Enclave, her feet so light on the ground she was nigh on skipping. I smiled at her back and tried not to laugh.

* * *

To Be Continued…

8


	22. Chapter 22

Gone For Good Chapter 22; Walkabout

**Chapter 22 **

**Thread**

"Thank you so much for bringing Juhani back!" Belaya said as she clutched at my shoulders. "We had thought her lost!"

I smiled crookedly and wiggled out of my fellow Padawan's grip. "You're welcome. Oh, hey I think Danika's calling me… gotta go!" Belaya thanked me again as I fled for the landing platform and the _Ebon Hawk._ This was the first time I had come back into the Enclave since Danika, Bastila, and I had come back from the grove with Juhani.

It had only been a few days since then but it felt much longer. I had taken to riding out to the farmer's market held by the locals and generally getting as far away from the Jedi and their Enclave as possible. Apparently we had not been expected to return with Juhani, or at least not return with her alive. The fact that we had not only brought her back in body but had also redeemed her from the dark side was the source of much gossip among the Enclave Jedi. Once word had spread Danika and I had nearly been swarmed with beings of all ages, sizes, and ranks coming up to us and giving us praises or else questioning us on how we had managed it. Danika fared much better at it than I did, doling out diplomatic answers and making her excuses when she really did need to leave.

I on the other hand had never been fond of crowds or being the center of attention for them. I had fled for the _Hawk_ when the very first chance had presented itself and hadn't stepped on Enclave ground since.

As for transportation the _Hawk_ had come with Davik's personal swoop bike parked squarely in the garage. I had mostly ignored it until now because I had not wanted anyone to even think that I might be interested in piloting it. Canderous seemed to understand this though and had offered to drive me wherever I wanted to go. I had taken him up on the offer readily.

And now, after nearly a week of staying away, I had been called back to the Enclave. Danika had said nothing that morning when I had come in from the plains with Canderous that morning but just after she had left for the Jedi compound and I normally would have left to go spelunking around the neighboring communities she had started calling me through our bond; nothing coherent, just an impulse. _Come here_, it had whispered. I had ignored it at first because it wasn't urgent but as the day had worn on it grew stronger. Finally in the early evening I had given in and gone to the Enclave searching for Danika. Before I could find her however I had been accosted by Belaya.

Thankfully she made no move to follow me as I fled for the _Hawk's_ landing pad. She didn't need to. Just as I came out of the archway leading to the pad Danika stepped in front of my path, her feet set wide apart and her expression grim. I came to a dead stop just a few feet from her and remembered just in time not to look into her eyes. I stared hard at her nose instead, working hard not to be drawn into the compelling midnight blue orbs that hung just above them.

"I know this is uncomfortable for you, but you can't keep running," Danika said. "Bastila and the Council are starting to get worried. They're giving me increasingly odd looks. I think they're planning something."

"Like what?" I asked, keeping my tone level. I didn't address my running away from the issue, hoping that if I directed the conversation elsewhere Danika would let it slide.

No such luck. "I'm not sure, and it doesn't matter. What matters is that you have to show your face around here again and stop acting like a skittish nerf."

I lifted my chin stubbornly. "I am not acting like a skittish nerf!" I insisted. "I just don't like being accosted by people I hardly know. I mean, it's not like we even did anything, really! We just talked to her. It was her decision whether to come back to the light or not."

Danika said nothing and simply stared at me. I fought against that all-encompassing will for a little while longer before being drawn into her eyes. They were deep and fathomless, as complicated and fascinating as the woman they belonged to. It felt like she was boring into my soul with those eyes, and now it was not such an irrational feeling as it had been before. We were bonded through the Force now and Danika really could look into my soul if she wanted.

My shoulders slumped in defeat. My heart contracted painfully and something in me wailed. "Okay," I said quietly. "I'll come back."

She let me go then and I looked away from her with relief. "I don't like it either, you know," she said.

I sighed and rubbed my face, resisting the urge to cry and wondering where that impulse had come from in the first place. Somewhere deep, I thought; somewhere buried. "How's Juhani?" I asked.

"Slinking around with her tail between her legs, like you," my friend answered. She gave me a critical look, one that I could meet without flinching. "You might want to talk to her. I think she feels guilty."

I nodded. "I'll do that," I said.

Danika said nothing and turned to walk back to the _Hawk_. Even though she didn't speak I knew what she wanted and I sighed again. I knew in the way she walked, the way she held herself, and the way she moved towards the _Hawk_ like a Corellian sand panther stalking back to its den for the night said to me that she wanted me to go find the Cathar woman immediately.

Eying the sinking sun, I whined. I _did not_ want to go back and deal with any of the Jedi, especially Juhani who was the source of my discomfort. But there was no denying that Danika was right. I couldn't run forever and expect the jittery Jedi Council to do nothing about it.

So I turned and went in the opposite of the direction Danika had gone. I took the least frequented halls in order to minimize my exposure and talked with as few people as I needed to in order to find Juhani. Thankfully information flowed fast around the Enclave, which essentially was its own miniature community, and she was not difficult to sound out.

There was a small cultivated space within the Enclave that was not quite a garden. The plants there were taken care of and trimmed and I suspected that it had been landscaped at some point. However it had come to be it was a pleasant place to go and be able to lose yourself for a while if you didn't want to leave the Enclave grounds. I found Juhani there, perched in the bowl of a sturdy old tree.

"Hey, fancy meeting you here," I called up. "Credit for your thoughts?"

Juhani blinked and looked down at me with the slightly disoriented look of those just surfacing from the depths of their minds. "I was meditating," she finally said.

I snorted softly as I climbed the tree. There had been trees on my home world as well and I had spent enough time climbing them as a child to be comfortable with it now. I settled myself on a nice thick branch a little ways away from Juhani. "You know it's okay to get away just to think, you know," I said as I arranged myself. "You don't always have to be doing something Jedi-like and productive."

Juhani looked at me for a long, fathomless moment, her golden eyes glittering even in the dappled shadow created by the tree's leaves. "You're not human," she said.

That sobered me up pretty quickly. "It's complicated," I replied, trying to keep myself calm. She hadn't told anyone else. Her face said as much. "How did you know?"

Juhani tapped her nose and the very faint ghost of a smile shadowed her lips, showing the very tips of sharp eyeteeth. "I can smell it. It is very subtle, but it is clear that you are not human; at least to me."

My shoulders tensed instinctively. My nose was keen but I had forgotten how potent the sense of smell was in some species. When I had thought to conceal the fact that I was a changeling, whatever that was, I had not stopped to consider that. "Would anyone else be able to figure it out?" I asked warily.

Juhani smiled for real then. "Not without testing your blood, I think. I was not raised with the Jedi and my father taught me how to sort out smells with my nose. He said that I had an exceptional talent for it." Golden eyes darkened with the memory and I relaxed as I instinctively reached out for the Force to test the words for truth. _Very true,_ came the answer. Juhani was not deceiving me in the least.

"Can you… keep this to yourself?" I asked carefully. Even though the woman was being honest with me I didn't know Juhani well. "Things are, well, complicated right now. I'm not sure how my friends will take the news, even less so with the Jedi Council."

Nodding gravely, the simple movement made elegant by her long neck, Juhani met my eyes. "I understand," she said. "Truly I am surprised I was let go with as little fuss as there was."

A breath I didn't realize I'd been holding escaped my lips. "Thank you," I said with the rush of air.

"You are welcome," Juhani said with yet another smile, a soft one this time. We said nothing else but it was not an awkward silence. We sat there together and watched the light change gently into darkness.

* * *

"I've never seen a Mandalorian before," Mission said. She was looking at Canderous intently, and he was finding that he rather enjoyed the attention of the rambunctious teenager. She was spirited, intelligent, and perhaps most importantly, she had courage.

"Are you going to stand there and stare at me, then, or are you actually going to be helpful?" Canderous asked the little Twi'lek gruffly as he worked on the _Hawk's_ swoop bike. He honestly had no idea why she had ignored him for all these weeks and then suddenly showed an overabundance of interest in him. Perhaps it was because she had been following Sabine about recently, or that she was trying to distract herself from the destruction of her home world. Canderous understood this but could not sympathize as he had spent much time away from his own home world and had truly not held a particular fondness for it.

"You're not all that scary," Mission said with a slight frown as she regarded Canderous. "Mandalorians are supposed to be scary."

Canderous didn't answer her. He turned his attention fully to the bike and concentrated on that rather than Mission's incessant fiddling. Although he had planned on perhaps having a family someday Canderous didn't know what to do with a teenager that wasn't a warrior and showed no interest in becoming one.

Mission didn't care if Canderous knew what to do or not. She handed him the tools that he asked for and gave advice as he worked on the bike, watching him all the while.

Many people throughout the galaxy hated and feared the Mandalorians. Mission didn't feel that way herself, mostly because they had not directly affected her. The Sith had destroyed Taris, not the Mandalorians, and even before the invasion the warrior race had not shown any members on her little Outer Rim world.

Even though she had not known Canderous long Mission didn't think he was scary, mean, or heartless like Mandalorians were supposed to be. She thought that maybe people who said stuff like that had never met one in person, or at least never met one when they weren't fighting. Canderous wasn't that bad once you got to know him.

And he was the only adult who was tolerating her presence right then which automatically won him points in Mission's eyes. Carth was muttering to himself and frowning in the cockpit and had been short and gruff with her when she had tried to hang out there. Danika was training over at the Enclave doing boring Jedi stuff, mainly things that didn't involve a lightsaber, and Sabine was simply nowhere to be found. Hestra and Zaalbar had gotten a ride from one of the locals into the farmer's market and would likely be gone for some time.

All of these things combined made Canderous the most engaging person currently on Dantooine, something that would have depressed Mission if she wasn't still feeling the loss of Taris keenly.

"Do you have any family?" Mission asked Canderous after some time spent wordlessly working on the bike.

The question didn't cause the big Mandalorian to stop what he was doing or even pause. For a moment Mission thought he wasn't going to answer at all, and then he spoke. "A few brothers," he said. "I don't know where they are now. The clan, or what was left of it, scattered after the war."

"I have a brother," Mission replied. "I don't know where he is either."

Canderous grunted but did not reply. Mission decided to let the subject lie; mentioning her brother Griff only reminded her that now that Taris was gone there was little chance he would be able to come back for her as she had always thought he would one day. She swallowed on the swell of pain and grief that rose in her heart and handed Canderous the servo driver.

* * *

Hestra walked among the stalls of the farmer's market relatively lightly armed, carrying only a stun baton, her blaster pistol, and her vibroblade. She didn't want to cause too much of a stir among the relatively peaceful farmers and besides, she had Zaalbar with her. The big Wookie was just as effective as a good rifle, if better for the fact that he stopped potential trouble with his mere presence.

Zaalbar was young, only a few years older than Mission and perhaps a little younger than Bastila, Hestra thought. It was easy to forget his youth in light of his size and the quiet but powerful way he handled himself. And it was for this very reason that Hestra had invited him along with her that day. She figured he needed a change of pace.

Over the past several weeks while Sabine and Danika had played Jedi Hestra had kept herself occupied with the locals. She liked the general attitude that prevailed here, one of down to earth practicality. But she was not there today to absorb the atmosphere of the market and to pass idle stories with the locals. Today she was trying to unravel a mystery.

During her last trip to the market, which had been before Sabine had taken up going there with Canderous in order to avoid going near the Enclave, Hestra had seen a young man that bore some resemblance to Sabine, at least around the eyes and chin. It was very likely her imagination getting away from her but something about him made the old veteran think otherwise and she had learned to trust her instincts a long time ago.

So here she was again, perusing the market stalls and hoping for another look at him and perhaps someone who would know who he was. Zaalbar picked up a carved walking stick while Hestra was observing the crowd and asked her to find out the price for him. She did, and when Zaalbar showed interest in buying it she haggled with the merchant over the price. It was not one of her better efforts but she came away from it feeling somewhat satisfied anyway, she'd managed to work down the price a significant amount.

Zaalbar seemed fairly pleased with the purchase as well although Hestra couldn't see why. The walking stick was much too short for him and was carved from a pale wood that stood out sharply and contrasted with his dark brown fur. Perhaps he had bought it for a different purpose however.

It was fortunate that Hestra was contemplating Zaalbar's purchasing preferences for if she hadn't been she would have never seen the young man again. He did not cross her path but did appear amongst the crowd just briefly off to one side. As soon as she saw him she moved quickly through the crowd. Once he was firmly in sight she paused by a merchant and studied him further. He was well dressed and his clothes were clean, a sure sign that he didn't have to do hard physical labor for a living. In a community as small as Dantooine's that would be rare Hestra knew, so perhaps he was a bit famous.

"Who's tha' youn' man ov'r there?" she asked the merchant who's stall she had paused by.

"That's Shen Matale," the merchant answered quickly, barely having to look at the human in question. He had been eyeing Hestra since she had stopped by his stall and had determined fairly rapidly that she was not there to buy something. Those that weren't interesting in spending money on his items were merely taking up room that could be occupied by paying customers and he wanted to be rid of Hestra as quickly as possible.

"Than's," Hestra replied. Much to the merchant's relief she moved on. The veteran would have loved to question him further but she was not willing to have to pull teeth to do it and had found that pulling teeth was exactly what it came down to if the informant was aggravated. There was also the fact that she had lost Zaalbar in her mad dash to get a good visual on the boy and she could hear him wailing somewhere behind her.

At least she had a name now, though. That was a beginning at least.

* * *

To Be Continued…

7


	23. Chapter 23

Gone For Good Chapter 23; Mawkish

**Chapter 23**

**Mawkish **

Carth sat in the cockpit and listened to the _Ebon Hawk_ thrum quietly around him. He twisted the ring on his finger and thought hard about recent events.

First, he did not think it was coincidence that the two last-minute transfers to the _Endar Spire_ had been among the very few to survive its destruction. Although he also believed that it was not their intention to deceive him; he had fought with them on Taris and in addition since they had landed on Dantooine Sabine Thade had kept him fully up to date on the situation. She was genuinely frustrated by the mysterious decisions of the Jedi Council, something that automatically lent her credibility.

Several days ago, just after Sabine and Danika had returned to the _Hawk_ after leaving very early in the morning, Bastila had intruded on Carth's self imposed solitude in the cockpit and dropped heavily into the co-pilot's chair. She had proceeded to vent to him about Sabine and Danika, saying they were uncontrollable, erratic, and frustrating. When he had tried to draw her into talking more about the subject, mainly to help her vent since she seemed so perturbed by the situation, she had refused to divulge anything else and had left in a hurry. This told him that unless Bastila had been acting, and he thought this was highly unlikely considering what he knew of the young woman's character, Sabine had not been lying to him.

So if Sabine and Danika were not the cause of this conspiracy he knew there must be someone else, and his top suspects were the members of the Jedi Council. From everything the two smugglers come Jedi had mentioned they had been acting strangely. He had no concrete evidence other than that, but he had never trusted Jedi, at least not after Telos.

Carth closed his eyes on the memory of his home world, now little more than a giant graveyard, and held the hand on which he wore his wedding band with his other tightly. A wave of grief washed over him, but he rode it out as he always did, wishing fervently that he had strong drink on hand.

Surprisingly just as the grief dissipated and left him with a hollow, gaping misery, Danika's heart shaped face rose up in his mind's eye, her midnight blue eyes soft. His heart stilled and he breathed and the new and fragile feeling within him.

_When had this started?_ He asked himself. There was no answer, and no way to get one. In truth it didn't matter when or where, only that it was there at all. As he sat in the cockpit and studied the view of the Jedi enclave and the rolling landscape of Dantooine beyond, he wondered if Danika felt the same way.

* * *

"Yeah, he just burst into the Enclave today, demanding 'justice be dealt on the Sandrals,' and all that." The middle-aged woman who spoke shook her head sadly as she packed tabac into a small pipe. "Poor Ahlan just hasn't been the same ever since his wife died. He just didn't know how to handle it."

Hestra made a sympathetic noise in her throat as she peeled another section off her fruit and popped it into her mouth. "How long has she been gone?" she asked. She was using her Coruscanti accent today; she wanted to make sure that she was understood when she spoke.

"Eh, eighteen years or so," the woman answered, taking the pipe out of her mouth and blowing a puff of smoke before speaking. "She died giving birth to that son of his, Shen. Poor man loved her more than life itself. He wouldn't have made it if it hadn't been for the baby. Never was quite the same though."

"What about her family? Didn't they step in?" Hestra knew already that Ahlan had been an only child, so she had reasoned that if Shen's resemblance to Sabine meant anything, it would be revealed with the mother's side of the family.

" 'Course they did," the woman replied with a soft huff and another tug on her pipe. "Lorelai, that was his wife by the way, she had four siblings. Hmm… that was three brothers and a sister if I remember right. One of them took over running the farm for him while his wife helped out with the baby."

"Only one? What happened to the others?" Hestra had been a soldier long enough that promising leads like the one the woman had just given her didn't get her excited as they used to, or at least not usually. But now Hestra found herself forcing her posture to remain relaxed. She was on the right track, she could feel it in her bones.

"One of the brothers took over their parent's farm. The last one, he was the second youngest, he went off to join the Republic Armed Forces. Not too many around here did. No point, not with all the work to be done and too few hands to do it. The others just wanted a bit of adventure but that one; he went running off after his sister. Not Lorelai, the youngest girl." The woman paused again to puff on her pipe for a few moments, her face contemplative. "Don't remember her name; she never did come to the market very often and her family never talked about her. That's because she was being trained up at that Enclave. The Jedi don't get to many kids from the farmers, but it does happen from time to time. When they do they don't like them interacting with their families. Says it distracts them or something like that." She huffed and clucked her tongue in disapproval. "I don't see how that makes sense, but then again when did Jedi ever make sense, eh?" she chuckled and nudged Hestra, who gave a smile and an agreeable chuckle back.

"What happened to the Jedi girl?" Hestra asked, her heart beating hard in her chest. She felt like she was twenty years younger. Was it only a coincidence that there was a family here on Dantooine who had a child trained as a Jedi when a member of that same family looked like Sabine? She didn't think so, but even as she pried into the woman's store of knowledge further she prepared herself for the possibility that she was wrong. This whole business could turn out to be a wild nerf chase and she'd have nothing to show for it except for an overabundance of knowledge about one of Dantooine's many farming families.

The woman shrugged at Hestra's question. "She didn't come back either. Her parents got a letter for her, same as they did their son that went off to the war. There was a rumor flying around right afterwards that she was still alive, but nobody put too much stock in that seeing how it was one of the other brothers that made the biggest fuss over it. Can't blame him really, losing two of his siblings at the same time like he did."

Hestra nodded. "It certainly wouldn't have helped, that's for sure." She said nothing more as she finished her fruit, licking her fingers clean afterwards and dropping the rind into the small waste basket the woman kept nearby. The woman continued to smoke her pipe and made no move to strike up further conversation with Hestra, which the old veteran didn't mind at all. She pulled a small bundle from her pocket as she thought and began to unfold it as she watched the crowds in the market. It was a little square of intricately woven fabric. The threads were made from a soft but pliable wax-like material which one would then weave into any desired pattern. Hestra had found out a long time ago that she thought better when her hands were occupied.

And think she did. She thought about a young man who looked very much like her smuggler friend and a family that had given its youngest child to the Jedi.

* * *

I sighed as I slumped in my chair outside the Council chambers and tried to get comfortable. Bastila glared at me disapprovingly but said nothing, seemingly satisfied that she could communicate her full displeasure with her eyes alone. I ignored her and pointedly yawned as I rubbed my eyes. She could go jump off a cliff for all I cared. Sitting up straight and acting like a proper Jedi went right out the window as soon as I had woken up in the middle of the night from yet another vision.

The previous night Bastila, Danika, and I had experienced a repeat of the dream we'd had when we had first landed on Dantooine. All Danika and I had wanted to do was try to get as much sleep as we could before morning but such was not to be. Bastila had run immediately to the Jedi Council and as soon as she was gone Danika had dived into her stash of booze with a vengeance. The rest of my night had been spent wrestling her away from it.

I would have much preferred to have been sleeping out under the stars with Canderous, but Bastila had taken to sleeping on the _Ebon Hawk_ and waking up early to try and catch me coming in. Canderous had thought it great fun and had immediately suggested numerous ways we could confound her, planning it out like a siege. And although I had to admit the look on her face when she was frustrated was priceless the thought of waging such a campaign when I already had to deal with the Force bond between us wearied me. So now Canderous and I were sleeping regularly in the _Ebon Hawk_, myself in the girl's dormitory and him in the boy's. It had only taken once for Bastila to realize I'd pulled a switch on her, and her strangled exclamation had been worth every lonely hour I had spent sleeping alone.

Sitting in that chair and trying to doze as I kept one eye on Danika in order to make sure she didn't either try to sneak off or take a sip from the flask I knew was secured somewhere on her person I was beginning to regret my decision.

The little indicator light next to the access panel for the Council chamber doors flicked green, the movement catching my attention from the corner of my eye. Bastila jumped up as if bitten, nervously straightening her clothing. I heaved myself to my feet with an explosive sigh and kicked Danika when she tried to use the movement of her robes as she got up to cover stealing a sip from her flask. She glared at me and went to tuck it back into a pocket, but before she could I snatched it from her, surprised at my own speed considering how little sleep I'd gotten.

Danika's whole petite frame bristled like a stuck Kowakian monkey-lizard but before she could either attempt to wrestle the flask away from me or curse at me the door opened and she was forced to let the matter drop. I'd definitely get an earful of her wrath later, but it was worth it to keep her sober.

Bastila walked into the Council chamber smoothly and I paused before following her, stuffing the flask into the nearest available pocket on my person. Fortunately Danika was quicker than I was and her entrance covered my move nicely.

"Understand we do that the three of you experienced another dream last night," Vandar said when we were all settled into our by now customary places.

"We did," I replied, settling myself into a respectful stance. Danika stood stiffly by my side, letting me do the talking as she had the other times we had met with the Council. She made no move to try for the flask, she was smart enough not to pull something like that in front of the Council, but I stood a little farther away from her than I usually did anyway. I just didn't trust her to behave when booze was involved.

Vandar nodded at my words gravely. "Dealt with this matter much earlier, we should have. More complete we wanted your training to be before we gave you this task."

Danika shifted next to me as Vandar spoke and I automatically tensed. But she wasn't going for the flask, a little twinge through our bond told me that she was simply anticipating what Vandar was talking about. That puzzled me for a moment before I remembered the ruins the Council had mentioned several weeks ago, back when we'd first had the dream.

"Sent we did another Jedi to investigate the ruins first," Vandar continued. "Returned he has not. Learn of his fate as well as investigate the ruins is your task."

"The Jedi who was sent has been missing for some time," Zhar said. "The sooner you can begin the investigation, the better." He looked worn, and as soon as I saw that I turned my focus to his chest in order to take his face out of focus but still be polite. I didn't want to think about why he would look like that while he was talking to Danika and me.

Folding her arms across her chest Danika ducked her head and set her jaw. "Who are we allowed to take this time?" she asked, managing to keep her voice level despite the irritation that flared through our bond. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Bastila shift slightly but it was the only reaction she gave to it. For such a high-strung teenager she was actually quite good at controlling her emotions.

"This is your investigation," Zhar answered. "You may conduct it in any way you wish."

Danika huffed softly and I pressed my lips together, knowing perfectly well that she and Bastila could feel my impatience despite my calm body language. I didn't want to rouse the Council any more than we had to, I just wanted to receive our task and leave in peace. "Bastila told us that we had to confront Juhani on our own," Danika said, her irritation bleeding into her tone just enough to be noticeable, if you were really paying attention. "What's so different this time?"

"Confronting Juhani was a test for the two of you alone. If you had not dealt with it in a satisfactory manner, you would not have been given the rank of Padawan," Zhar replied flawlessly. "All Jedi are subject to such tests over the course of their lives. The Trials are used to determine a Jedi's worthiness of the rank of Jedi Knight. Training an apprentice is also a test, and once the apprentice successfully gains the rank of Knight the Jedi who trained him or her is granted the rank of Master. " It seemed like he would stop talking then, but his body twitched as he finished, causing me to look up at his face. He was composed, but there was a tension in the muscles beneath the skin that suggested regret and pain. "I am truly sorry that your training has been so short. There is much that would have been explained to you if there was time to do so. I implore that you have patience, and never be afraid to ask questions as you just did."

That caught Danika off guard. Her head came up in an involuntary movement and when I glanced at her I saw that her jaw lost its stubborn set to surprise. I felt that same emotion emanated through or bond and reflected within myself. I hadn't expected Zhar to be so… forthcoming.

I recovered first. I steeled myself against any stray emotions I might feel in response to Zhar's unexpected move and bowed slightly in respect. "Thank you, Master," I said. He nodded, but I only registered the movement from the peripheral of my vision. Even so, I could see that his head was tilted ever so slightly away from me and Danika. He wasn't looking at us either. I was glad not to be alone, even if his reasons were different than mine.

* * *

To Be Continued…

4


	24. Chapter 24

Gone For Good Chapter 24; Adamant

**Chapter 24 **

**Affinity**

Mission wrinkled her nose as Hestra bustled about the girl's dormitory aboard the _Ebon Hawk_. She was bleary eyed and her lekku were thrown loosely about her shoulders. She sighed and slumped against the wall her bunk was attached to. "Why do I have to go again?"

" 'Cause you've g't the st'lth generator," Hestra answered. "I need ye t' do a mite of snoopin' ab't."

A dangling lekku curled up to wrap about the teenager's upper arm and she sat forward in her bunk. "Like what kind of snooping?" she asked.

"No stealin'," Hestra replied immediately, pointing a finger sharply at Mission and getting a stern look on her face. "I jus' wan' ye t' git some infermat'n."

Mission's face and lekku drooped. "Awww, but Hes, that's no fun!"

Hestra huffed as she checked her weapons. "Th's guy's from one o' th' most w'lthy families o' Dan'ooine. He's go' the bes' securi'y money cin buy."

Once again Mission perked up again, and for the first time since they had left Taris there was a gleam of mischief in her eye. "Really," she said. She drew the word out and although her face was showing only a mild interest the very tips of her lekku were moving in a slow, contemplative rhythm that told Hestra she had the girl where she wanted her.

"So ye comin' er no'?" Hestra asked as she threw her pack over her shoulder.

"Just let me get my stuff!" Mission answered. She leaped from her bunk and dragged out the locker underneath it, flipping it open to rummage through the haphazardly strewn contents. She came up with a few things that Hestra recognized had to do with hacking, although the purpose of most of them escaped her. She had always been more of a soldier than a techie.

"No need t' git all wor'ed u'," Hestra replied with a chuckle for Mission's enthusiasm. "I'll no' leave withou' ye." Even though she knew the girl heard her the words seemed to have little effect as she continued to gather all her gear at breakneck speed. Hestra didn't mind really, it reminded her of someone else she had known long ago and she found herself smiling at the memory. She caught herself a moment later; frowning at the wall and wondering when it had started that she could recall such things without grief.

"Come on! I thought we were going!" Mission said, the toolkit hanging from her belt sticking out obviously against her slim frame.

The young Twi'lek's voice brought Hestra away from her thoughts. She made some agreeable response that she did not remember later and as she turned to leave the girl's dormitory Mission bolted out before her. She smiled again, but this time she held onto the good feeling that accompanied it instead of pushing it away as she always had before.

* * *

Hestra took the swoop bike aboard the _Ebon Hawk_ out to the Matale estate. She knew it would have been better to sniff around the market some more and find people who knew the Matale's and the Thornfelds, whom were his wife's family, personally but she also wasn't sure how much time she had left. Sabine, Danika, and Bastila didn't talk to her about Jedi business but what she was getting indicated that events were coming to a head. Hestra was old enough to recognize the pattern and knew that soon, one way or the other, the crew of the _Ebon Hawk_ would be leaving Dantooine.

It was a risky move coming to the Matales directly. They could simply turn her away at the door, but Hestra had seen plenty of loss in her life as well as experiencing it personally. She was fairly certain that she could get in the door at least. And that was all she really needed, if she could get Mission in the young girl could do the rest.

Hestra did not want to rely on Mission, she much preferred to get her information from live beings instead of computers, but she was determined to investigate the Matales to the fullest extent and to do that she needed to cover all the possibilities.

The Matale estate was nestled into a small valley created by several small mesas that surrounded it. It was a decent distance away from the Jedi enclave, no problem for a swoop bike but certainly some distance on foot by Hestra's judgment. A few of the native blba trees broke up the flat area around the estate but other than that it looked as if the grounds had been left to grow wild. The estate itself rose no more than one story high and sprawled over the flattest part of the valley, complete with a duracrete pad that looked large enough to land a small ship. As Hestra drew closer she realized the pad must sit right by the main entrance for several guard droids were posted by the building.

"Yer up, pup," Hestra said to Mission as they continued to close in on the landing pad. The young girl immediately pressed something on her stealth generator and disappeared with a brief flare of blue sparks. "An' rem'mber, no stealin'!" Hestra hissed at the now seemingly empty seat beside her.

"I won't! Yeesh! You're like my mother," Mission complained.

"An' I'll span' ye like yer ma if ye take anythin'!" Hestra growled. Mission snorted but otherwise made no other response as Hestra settled the swoop onto the landing pad. The security droids swiveled their heads to watch it and its passengers but otherwise made no move towards them.

As she exited the swoop bike Hestra faintly heard Mission scrambling out as well. Through experience and long practice Hestra ignored this, giving no indication that she knew the teenager was there through body language. She knew certain beings, especially Jedi, where sensitive to such queues but she was not certain how well the security droids could pock up on it. Her policy was to play it safe. She did not want things to crash to a halt before they even began.

"You're vehicle is not registered," one of the security droids said as she approached. "What is your name?"

"Hestra Kahn," the old veteran replied, speaking her name clearly for the droid.

The droid's head moved slightly and whirring noises could be heard as it processed the information. "You're name is not in my database," it said when it was done. "This is private property. If you do not have business with the Matale family I am authorized to remove you from the premises."

"I would like to speak with Ahlan Matale. Please inform him that I am here," she said, keeping her Coruscanti accent as she spoke. Most droids had trouble understanding it and she didn't want this one to do so, not while it was holding a large blaster rifle.

It made no reply to her but turned its head again as it communicated with the estate's system. After a few minutes or so it turned back to her. "Ahlan Matale has requested that you remain in your current position until he arrives," it said.

Hestra nodded and shifted her stance so that she would be more comfortable while she waited. Her joints complained somewhat but it was not as bad as it could have been and she was glad she kept up on her exorcise. She could hear Mission move towards the door and knew that the girl would try to slip into the estate when Ahlan Matale came out. The wait was not as long as Hestra thought it would be, which lead her to think that Ahlan must think her visit important, or at least extremely interesting, to respond to it at such speed.

He emerged from the estate flanked by two more security droids. He was only a little taller than Hestra and his hair was already as gray as hers even though he was clearly only in his early to mid forties, solidly twenty years younger than her. She was not intimidated by the presence of the droids but she understood why he had them. He was not a terribly imposing man.

And unlike his son, he looked nothing like Sabine.

"Hestra Kahn," Ahlan said as he walked over to her. Behind him the door into the estate paused a few moments before closing, a sure sign that Mission had slipped inside. Even as Hestra noted this she kept her eyes and body in focus towards the man approaching her. As he stopped in front of her he gave her a broad, if somewhat tired, smile. "My cousin took over your parents trading franchise after you left."

Hestra returned his smile, for it had been a long time since she had left her parents in order to strike out on her own and she was happy with how it had turned out. "Heh. Small galaxy, aint it? So how are the old coots? They kicked yet?" As she spoke she let her accent shift slightly away from Coruscanti, the formality of it having never entirely sat well with her.

"No," Ahlan replied. "Last thing I heard from my cousin they retired to a nice Core world somewhere. So what brings you to my door? I know you didn't know who I was, from what I understand you didn't contact your parents after you left."

"That I didn't," Hestra replied. "I told 'em I didn't care what happened to them an' I mean' it. I'm 'ere 'cause your son bears a striking resemblance to a good friend of mine who's got 'er head a bit mixed up."

Ahlan's face darkened at Hestra's words and the old veteran wondered if she was about to be booted off the property. "Do you have a holo of this friend?" Ahlan asked. Relieved that he had not immediately told her to leave but very aware that he could still do so, she produced a small holo projector from her pocket and handed it over to Ahlan.

When he activated it the holo played out a scene that had taken place several months before the _Endar Spire_ had crashed on Taris. Hestra had insisted that she, Danika, and Sabine get a holo recorded together in a rare moment of sentimentality. They had taken shore leave on a small Mid Rim moon, and the two younger women were not happy about being snagged for a candid moment.

"Come on, Hestra, there's pazzak dens here!" Danika had said as the recording began. "I don't have time for this."

"And booze," Sabine had added with a laugh. "What she really means is that where there's pazzak there's booze."

Danika had ducked around Hestra to whack her taller friend, who had only laughed harder as she dodged out of the holo's range. Hestra had sighed and gave the signal to cut the recording to the vender. As the clip ended shrieks of laughter mixed in with irritated, snappy comments could be heard in the background.

Before it could play again Ahlan turned the holo off with a shaky hand and a face full of pain. "That's her," he said quietly. "That's Lorelai's sister. She was only ten when my wife died." He shook his head and closed his eyes in an attempt to contain his grief. When he opened them again he handed the holo projector back to Hestra as if it was a fragile, precious thing. "I thought she was dead."

Hestra accepted the holo projector with the same solemn gesture that Ahlan had given it. "From what I hear one of her brothers disagreed," she said, her accent clicking right back into formal Coruscanti.

"Tage," Ahlan said. "He was close to her and Vance. They were twins you know, Vance and Seble. Even after the Jedi took her they remained close."

"Seble's the same girl as the tall one in the holo, is that correct?" Hestra asked.

"Yes," Ahlan answered. He studied Hestra carefully. "Why? Does she go by a different name now?"

"Yes," Hestra said. "I'd tell you, but she seems to be mixed up in a bit of trouble and I don't think she'd appreciate me dragging you and her nephew into it."

Ahlan gave a chuckle at her words, a sound that was both sad and happy at the same time. "That sounds like her, alright. She was always running to Lorelai when she needed to hide for a while."

"Heh," Hestra huffed with a smile. She remembered several incidents on the _Spire _where Sabine had ducked into the room they had shared wild-eyed and dived under Hestra's bunk with a strangled cry of "hide me!" She never knew where Danika went but she did know for a fact that where one of those women was in trouble the other was inevitably involved.

"I wonder, would you do something for me?" Ahlan asked, his eyes taking on a brightness that Hestra did not particularly like. "My son Shen has gone missing and I am certain the Sandrals are responsible but the Jedi Council has refused to honor my requests."

Hestra didn't like the sound of that, but she knew what Sabine would do if she knew her nephew was in trouble. She'd go tearing off after him without a moment's hesitation. That brought up the question of what exactly she was going to tell the blond ex-smuggler. The woman clearly had no recollection of her former past as a Jedi although she was definitely suspicious. Rumors around the Republic Armed Forces said that Jedi could tell if someone was lying just by looking at them and that they could see all your secrets through the Force. Although the Jedi were still mysterious to her Hestra had served with more than one over her career and had a fare idea of what they were capable of. She knew that if she outright told Sabine of her true origins there was a good chance that the Jedi Council would know. After that, she had no idea what would happen but since Sabine had kept her mouth shut about her suspicions Hestra was fairly sure it wouldn't be anything good.

Reluctantly, Hestra came to the decision to help Ahlan find his son and to keep his relation to Sabine secret. She hoped fervently that someday she would be able to tell her the truth.

* * *

To Be Continued…

5


	25. Chapter 25

Gone For Good Chapter 25; Guide

**Chapter 25**

**Guide **

_Thin wails of agony sounded out over the field. Armor clad figures walked over shattered ground and silenced them, mud mixing freely with blood. A light rain dropped down out of a leaden sky, appearing out of a jagged hole in the canopy of the dense forest that rose in shades of thick green around the rough clearing. _

_A deep scar in the ground and shattered flora showed the path that the ship had taken as it had crashed. It lay now in what would be its final resting place, the front half of it buried in a tangle of trees its momentum had not carried it through. Even as rain hissed against the scorched hull smoke rose from its surface. _

_The man next to me shook his head and grunted. His helmet was off and hanging on his belt. Precipitation dripped freely down his face and he did not blink as it flowed around his steel gray eyes. "Foolish," he said. "How many ships do we have to shoot them down before they figure out that they need to scout out the anti-air turrets before sending in their troop ships?" _

_My voice had a metallic quality to it as it was projected by speakers set into the outer plates of my helmet. "They'll learn," I said simply. "It might take them a while but they _will_ learn. And they have the advantage of numbers." _

"_Like cannoks," the man huffed, turning his head to observe a group of said animals as they poked large, ovular heads out of the undergrowth. Eyes set into short thick stalks ogled at the assembly of living and dead hungrily. _

"_Even cannoks can overtake a zakkeg, given enough numbers," I said in reply, trying to use my tone to warn the man. _

_He only huffed again as he watched the curious little animals creep out of the forest and seize a dead man by the shoulder. They dragged it only halfway back into the forest before beginning to feed. _

_Other, bigger things would be here shortly. I knew that we must work quickly to get any information to be had from the ship if we did not want to face a second battle. _

_Hefting my heavy rifle over my shoulder, I voiced as much to the man next to me. "Let's go, Canderous. We'd better report back to Mandalore." _

_The man grinned broadly, a sparkle in his eye. "Heh, you just want to get back to the tent before anyone else comes in from the field." _

_I chuckled instead of smiling so that he would know my reaction. "Well, that is _one_ reason…" _

* * *

It was dark when I woke up. Only a few soft lights set into the floor giving the girl's dormitory aboard the _Ebon Hawk_ any illumination. I could hear the others sleeping, Bastila next to the door, her breathing deep and regular. Danika was in the bunk across from me and twitched slightly, mumbling under her breath with one hand strewn over the lower half of her face. When I looked over at Mission's bunk I saw that the young girl was splayed out in a position that I would never have found comfortable. Her blanket was half draped over her form and her lekku were cast in two different directions, one hanging down off the bunk and the other curled loosely above her head, the tip of it twitching absently. Hestra, as usual, was fully stretched out on her bunk with her arms folded neatly over her chest. Her face was completely slack and calm. Even back on the _Spire_ I had always wondered how she could sleep so well.

I knew that I certainly wasn't getting back to sleep any time soon. I moved the blanket aside and swung out of my bunk, curling my toes up as my feet contacted with the cool metal of the dormitory's floor. As I stood up I suppressed a groan, shivering slightly as the cool air contacted my skin, heated slightly from having been warmed under the blanket. After a moment's thought I grabbed the blanket and wrapped it about my shoulders.

My bare feet were silent as I walked into the main hold. I was surprised to see Canderous sitting at the holo table, a cup of caffa in his hand and a cigarra hanging from his mouth, sending curling trails of smoke towards the ceiling. He looked up at me and followed my movements silently as I went to pour myself a cup of caffa as well. "I had a dream about us," I said.

Canderous grunted and took a sip of his caffa. More smoke billowed from the cigarra as he breathed. "What world was it?" he asked.

"I don't know," I answered. "The name wasn't mentioned. But there was a thick forest. It was raining, and there were animals called cannoks."

"Dxun," Canderous replied in a grunt. His eyes narrowed imperceptivity and went hard. "Revan did not play that well, in the beginning. I always wondered what that was for."

I shrugged and took a large gulp of caffa, wincing as it burned my throat. I had heard, even as removed from the fighting in the Mandalorian Wars as I was, floating out in the Mid and Outer Rims smuggling with Danika, that Revan's tactics were like a 'shadow within a shadow.' No one knew what the Jedi turned Sith was doing at any given time. "Well I guess we'll never know now that Revan's dead," I said. The news had been plastered all over the holo news channels several months ago, the Republic's great victory being spread as far and wide as possible.

Canderous shook his head and took a good puff from his cigarra before taking it out of his mouth to expel the smoke in a thick plume. "I still can't believe the mastermind that defeated my people was taken down by a half-wit like Bastila. I doubt she could command her way out of a paper bag."

I smiled at that. "Yeah, she is young," I said with a chuckle. "She's got potential though, as soon as someone knocks her off that high horse."

Taking a small sip from his caffa, Canderous smiled at me. "You always did like to take in strays," he said. "You do have an eye for potential, though. Half the reason I didn't argue with you overmuch."

Something teased the back of my mind gently and I automatically checked the bond with Danika and Bastila to make sure that they were still asleep. When I was assured that they were I made no attempt to suppress the surfacing memory.

_A young face, pale and scared. A tangle of long hair in a color like the heart of a fire, a red that had a hint of orange to it. Dark brown eyes spilled over with tears as they looked up at me. She couldn't have been more than ten or twelve years old._

_I gathered her into my arms, soft limbs folding awkwardly around armor. "What are you doing?" Canderous asked, clearly annoyed even though I couldn't see his face. _

"_I'm not leaving her!" I told him, wind whipping my hair about my face. I had taken off my helmet in order to reassure the young girl. _

_Canderous made an aggravated noise. "Fine! But I'm not waiting for you if you fall behind!" I knew he wasn't telling the truth. I knew the big Mandalorian would never leave me behind. _

_But I was smart enough not to speak my thoughts out loud, and I smiled at the back of his head as I walked forward, the young girl in one hand and my blaster rifle in the other. I could fire it one handed if I needed to. "What's your name, kiddo?" I asked her gently. _

_She peered up at me with trusting eyes, clinging to me as tightly as she could. "Mira," she said. _

"Mira," I repeated out loud. No more memories came, but I felt like there should be more. I had loved the girl as if she had been my own child.

"She was good," Canderous said. "Best mechanic I've ever seen, besides you. After I thought you died I kept her with our squad." He looked away then and my heart seized with trepidation. Was he about to tell me that the beautiful little girl I saved was dead? I held my breath as he continued. "I got separated from her after Malachor. I don't know what happened to her."

"So she could still be alive," I said with some relief.

Canderous chuckled as he looked back at me. "I thought you were dead, _cyar'ika_," he said warmly. "And you're sitting right in front of me. As well as we trained her and as fierce as she is, Mira has a good chance of still being alive."

I sat still and thought about that a moment. "Maybe we'll find her some day," I said quietly. Even though the memory of her was fresh and bright the actual existence of the girl named Mira was fragile as if I looked at it too hard it would break. It seemed almost impossible that I might see her again.

"With your luck, _akaan'ad,_ she'll drop right into our laps," Canderous replied. He finished off his caffa in one quick swallow and stood up to pour himself more.

"_Akaan'ad,_" I repeated, feeling the word with my mouth and finding it very familiar. I mulled it about in my mind for a few moments, trying to find the translation for it. No matter how hard I tried it did not come. "What does it mean?" I asked finally, my frustration clear in my voice.

Canderous paused before answering and when I looked over to him I could see the shadow of pain on his face. "Army of one," he answered. "You were the best fighter in our squad. I don't remember who used it first but it fit you, so we used it often."

I said nothing right away, looking at the big Mandalorian until his eyes met mine. "_You _used it often," I said, knowing even as I spoke that it was true. It had been his name for me, used in the same breath as _cyar'ika_, which meant beloved. The other members of our squad must have used it often, but I knew that they wouldn't have said it like Canderous would, turning that simple nickname into something much more.

Still standing, Canderous set his caffa down on the table and walked over to sit next to me. He wrapped his arms around me in a brief, strong embrace. "It's good to have you back," he said before leaning back so that we sat with our sides touching and his arm wrapped around my shoulder.

I returned the gesture, shifting in my chair so that I could rest my own arm over his shoulders comfortably. "I'm sorry I can't remember more," I told him.

"It will come, _akaan'ad_," Canderous replied confidently. "You're too stubborn for it not to."

I smiled up at him, meeting his steel gray eyes and relishing in the confidence they held. I rested my head against him and took a deep breath, savoring the smell of him. I was glad that he wasn't worried. It gave me hope that everything would turn out half-way alright.

* * *

There came a point later that morning that I decided to try and get some extra rest after all. I knew I wouldn't fully get back to sleep but I could at least lay horizontally and doze for a bit. It worked and I was even beginning to slip back into sleep by the time that Bastila got up for her early morning meditation. Here wakefulness made its way through the bond and pulled me away from the brink of sleep towards full consciousness. I gritted my teeth but tried to stay relaxed, the matter being helped by the fact that Bastila put off a quiet, peaceful feeling when she meditated. The action seemed to center her.

Apparently I was the only one who thought so however because Bastila had not been awake for more than five minutes before Danika grumbled and thrashed around in her bunk in an attempt to get more comfortable. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly and tried not to get irritated by her. I tried to send soothing feelings at her in order to get her to go back to sleep, even if it would only be for another hour or so.

But it was too late. Danika fumbled herself out of her bed, dug through the locker beneath her bunk for a fresh change of clothing, and stomped out of the girl's dormitory. Her anger at being woken up early burned brighter with every step. I sighed heavily and threw an arm over my eyes, knowing that any attempt at further rest was completely shot for the day.

"What exactly was _that_ display for?" Bastila asked haughtily. I didn't have to look at her to know she was aiming the question at me. Her intent was distinctly displayed through the bond, so distinctly that I knew she must be pushing it at me.

With a soft growl I rolled myself out of my bunk and glared at the Padawan. Behind her I could see Mission still splayed out on her bunk, apparently not disturbed by recent events in the slightest. Hestra was gone. "Get used to it, Princess," I grumbled. "Dani isn't a morning person, and that's putting it mildly."

She raised one eyebrow in reply and turned her nose up ever so slightly, closing her eyes and going back to her meditation. Or trying to anyway. I could see the slight crease in her brow that said she was trying to concentrate through Danika's anger.

I slipped into my boots and gathered a fresh set of clothes before leaving Bastila to it. I didn't bother trying the 'fresher, as I came out of the girl's dormitory and passed by it I could see the red indicator light that said it was occupied. I paused just past it, a thought occurring to me.

Walking back to the 'fresher I stood in front of it and gently laid my head against the door, closing my eyes. Much of the Jedi training Danika and I had received focused on feeling the Force and I put some of that into effect now. I evened out my breathing and focused on the bond, ignoring Bastila's end and concentrating on Danika's. I could feel her irritation and anger like heat on my skin, and I found it a struggle not to be consumed by it. I brought back a memory that I knew was real, a day and night we had spent on shore leave when we had still been with the _Endar Spire._ We had played pazzak and gotten drunk. We had flirted with some of the males there and one of them had misinterpreted our signals. It had ended up in a large bar fight that was, to the contrary of such things, quite a bit of fun. I brought back the memory of the breathless escape after, of the cool night air and the feeling of freedom despite our enforced enlistment. I held it to the forefront of my mind and pushed it at my bond-mate.

_My shoulder was sore where someone had broken a bar stool over it. I was thankful that it hadn't been a metal one. I limped behind Danika as we ran, a little frustrated as always that she was so much shorter than I was and yet she could run so much faster. We laughed, or breath misting in the night air. _

"_If they link us to that we are in so much trouble!" I called out breathlessly. "Did you use cred chips or a card?" _

"_Chips!" Danika declared happily. "Never gave out my name either. You?" _

"_Nope! I'm clear," I answered. "What do you say to finding another bar?" _

_Danika's pale face turned red as she laughed and she almost faltered as she ran. "You can't be wanting more! We're due back on duty in the morning!" _

"_Oh come one, when did you ever turn down booze?" I asked her in a disbelieving tone. We slowed down to a jog, the sound of enforcement sirens far behind us and coming no closer. "I won a big pot back there, I'll buy!" _

"_Heh, well it wouldn't be the last time I came on duty with a hangover," Danika said with a wry twist to her mouth. Her eyes blazed brightly in the minimal light provided by the starts and the planets single small moon, looking like glittering black gems. There was a bruise forming high on her forehead but it was only a mild one. Some creative arrangement of her hair might be required to hide it for a few days but it was nothing that would instantly get flagged by an officer. Ours wasn't all that difficult anyway. _

"_Now that's the spirit!" I cheered, and we slowed down completely to a walk as we made our way back into the main street. _

When I came back to myself Danika's anger had cleared and the door had opened. She looked up at me with a mix of thanks and irritation. "You're standing between me and the caffa," she said softly, her expression settling into mild irritation.

I stepped back from the door and tried not to smile. I was mostly successful. "Please do. I like my head on my shoulders were it belongs," I said. Normally I knew she'd be adding something a little extra from her flask as well but after I had confiscated it outside the Jedi Council chambers I had hidden it under my bunk. I checked it several times a day, so I knew she hadn't found it yet.

Danika glared at me as she walked passed me towards the main hold. As she did I could feel a quiet kind of satisfaction coming from Bastila, and I let that feeling carry me into the 'fresher. I smiled broadly as I turned on the water setting, wondering idly if Zaalbar or Carth had gotten up yet and if Canderous had ever been able to get back to sleep.

* * *

As Danika sipped her caffa and felt a kind of pleased contentment come from both her bond-mates she allowed herself a small smile. The memory that Sabine had conjured up was a good one.

Danika did not think that she had always been irritable just after waking. The only reason she was so now was because whenever she woke up she felt as if she was forgetting something, as if she had gone to bed the previous night with an important chore left undone. The feeling was no clearer than that and no matter how hard she hunted for a reason for it she couldn't find one. It ate at her sometimes, burning through her waking thoughts like acid and making her want to dive into a bottle and never come out.

Her eyes narrowed at the thought and she wondered where Sabine had hidden her flask. She had searched the entire ship three times and the girl's dormitory five. She had found nothing and knew that Sabine was planning on keeping it that way. There was even a chance that the blond woman was moving the flask occasionally just to throw Danika off its scent even further.

In order to distract herself from thoughts of the flask Danika made her way to the garage to check on the swoop bike. She liked checking things even if she didn't entirely know how to fix them; however when she got to the garage the bike was gone.

She closed her eyes and sighed heavily, for she and Sabine had been planning on heading out to get a look at the ruins the Council had bade them investigate today. Now that the _Ebon Hawk's_ swoop bike was missing they would have to borrow one from the Enclave. It was not a prospect Danika was looking forward to. Despite her earlier words to Sabine she was no fonder of dealing with the Jedi than her friend was.

Grumbling into her mug of caffa, Danika went to tell Sabine of the bike situation.

* * *

To Be Continued…

7


	26. Chapter 26

Gone For Good Chapter 26; Render

**Chapter 26 **

**Render **

I surveyed Dantooine's expanse of rolling wilderness with narrowed eyes from the passenger seat of the speeder Danika and I had borrowed from the Jedi Enclave. Bastila sat uneasily in the middle of the rear seat, her posture indicating she was on high alert. I could understand why. This was voritor lizard country.

Although the area where the farmers were located was broken up into patches of grassland and blba forest the area where the ruins lay was on the forefront of the great plains. It was prime voritor lizard habitat, the creatures loving all the open space to sun themselves and to run. They were large reptiles, fully seven feet long from tip to tail. Although they moved deceptively slow most of the time they could be deadly fast when they charged and they had a massive skull full of needle sharp teeth to help them latch onto and tear apart prey. Unlike kath hounds that could be deterred by a vehicle or large groups a voritor lizard always saw humanoids as an easy meal. Even a Jedi would be hard pressed to fight one off.

From what I understood voritor lizards typically patrolled further into the great plains, but they were sometimes known to patrol this close to the blba forests. My gun was at the ready and in my lap, all my senses on the alert for the scaly predators.

As we approached the area where the ruins lay the grass changed to a much shorter variety and offered no concealment for large predators. One would think that the herbivores of the area would make use of such a place but they did not. Aside from the soft rustling of grass in the wind the area was eerily silent.

There were standing stones there just as there were at the cairn where Danika and I had met Juhani but this time it was obvious that they had been created by sentient creatures and not nature. They stood twice as tall as a human and had been carved into simple rectangular shapes with a chunk missing in the middle. Some of them leaned towards the ground as if conceding to the weight of time.

Danika stopped the speeder a few meters from a tall mound with a door buried in its side. Standing stones flanked either side of it as if to mark the passage towards it and stretching back from it was a length of land slightly raised above the rest. Beyond it the great plains stretched into the distance, grasses of varies types and sizes rippling in the wind and causing it to resemble a great green sea.

I hopped out of the speeder with my rifle at the ready and scanned the area while Danika locked down the vehicle. The hair on the back of my neck stood up on end as I did so, and in response I tentatively stretched out my awareness of the Force. There was a weight in the air, similar to the one I had felt in Juhani's grove but different as well. This was less an active oppression of the heart and mind than it was like something was just waiting. It crouched around us like a predator, confident and unconcerned. "How old is this place anyway?" I asked, directing my question to Bastila by looking at her.

"I don't know," she answered me, her face schooled into a perfect mask. I took a moment to check the bond and find that she was struggling to keep herself in check. "No one knows. They have been here as long as the Jedi have. What I understand from Master Dorak is that they were ruins even then."

"The Jedi haven't been here long," Danika said. She made no move towards the structure but instead seemed to be simply taking it in.

"The enclave was established about fifty years ago," Bastila stated evenly. She didn't say anything more and stood where she was, her perfect mask slipping into the slightest of frowns as she observed the ruins.

I left her to it and walked up to one of the standing stones, studying it from all angles, running my hands over the roughened stone. It had never been smooth, I thought. "I think these ruins are older than we think," I said at length. I swept my hand over the entirety of the small hill standing like a gate into the plains and its standing stones. "It looks like this was a complex once, but it was buried. It would take a very, very long time for it to form such a smooth hill like that."

Danika grunted and when I turned to look at her and Bastila I saw the Jedi Princess was biting her lip. Not enough to be really prominent but just enough to notice. She didn't like it here, that was obvious. But I didn't think it was because of the presence of the dark side hanging heavily in the air. She seemed reluctant to approach the heavy black door set into the hillside, as if doing so would erase a path she had hoped to follow and force her into one she didn't want to take.

And who was I to say that wasn't the case? It was a given by now that Bastila and the Council knew more than they were letting on.

"We should go in," Danika said. "Get this over with." She didn't wait for either Bastila or I to make the first move, continuing forward in a soldier's walk; slow enough to gather information and react quickly to an incoming attack, but fast enough to cover ground steadily. I followed her in the same manner. I felt a twinge as Bastila's control over the bond slipped and a small noise escaped from her as she regained her composure in the next instant. I could hear the crunch of her boots on the grass as she started after us, walking quickly to catch up.

The dark side energy that hovered over the ruins seemed to stir as the three of us walked towards the door set into the hillside, and immediately the bond on Bastila's end opened. She was a turmoil of uncertainty, guilt… and vulnerability. Danika and I fell back to walk next to her, reassuring her with the proximity of our bodies. _We're with you, and we're not going anywhere,_ was what we conveyed, radiating wary confidence to her through the bond. It seemed to help; I could feel her resolve strengthening. There were still undercurrents of emotion in her that did not match up with the current situation however and they stirred the fractured feeling in my mind. I looked over at her and for a moment, a space of time little more than the blink of the eye, I saw a much younger girl. Her face was open and confident, and she seemed happy.

Just as quickly as the image had come it was gone, but it left behind the uncomfortable feeling that I was missing something important. I was grateful Bastila was distracted and turned back to the door, now looming large in my vision. The dark side settled around us once again, as if it had assessed us and found that we were nothing to be concerned about. That in and of itself made me nervous, and I fought to conceal the emotion as Danika approached the door.

* * *

Carth's face was drawn into a sharp frown as he contemplated what Hestra had just told him. He and the veteran were currently alone on the _Ebon Hawk_, or as much as they could be. Canderous was working on the swoop bike in the garage and Mission and Zaalbar were currently pestering the Jedi at the Enclave. Hestra had taken pains to make sure they would be gone for a while. Mission didn't know about Sabine's relationship to the Matales, she hadn't uncovered anything that would tell a casual observer what was going on. Since Mission didn't seem like the type to keep a secret very well Hestra had decided to keep the information from her.

"So you're telling me that Sabine's really a Dantooine farmer named Seble Thornfeld?" Carth huffed. "That seems a little hard to believe, I've seen her in action." It was true. The woman was a terror in a firefight, and he had been grateful more than once after the destruction of the _Endar Spire_ that she was on his side. She'd clearly received combat training, and no farmer he'd ever met received combat training as part of their standard education. Still, the whole business with Danika, Sabine, and the Jedi Council had never sat well with him. If Hestra could provide sufficient evidence, he'd side with her. Until then he'd just as soon be skeptical, better to be paranoid where nobody could see it.

Hestra shook her head. "She's not an ex-farmer. She's an ex-Jedi." Once again she had slipped partly back into her Couruscanti accent so that she might be better understood. Carth had been surprised at first, but he had quickly overlooked it in favor of what the veteran had to say.

"Actually she's an ex-smuggler the Council's suddenly decided to make a Jedi," Carth pointed out, but Hestra could see that he wasn't disagreeing with her. He was just looking for proof. That was fine, she had plenty of proof.

"What I mean ta say is that she was raised _here_, on Dantooine, as a Jedi," Hestra emphasized her speech with small gestures of her hands, a habit she had thought she'd given up a long time ago. She was passionate about what she was saying, and that too surprised her. _I guess I've still got some gusto in these old bones, _she thought. "She was a full Knight, and she even went to fight in the Mando Wars. She didn't come back, so I'm thinking she stayed on for the current war. But something happened to cause her amnesia, and now the Council's got her back here. They're up to something fishy with her and Danika. I'm so close I can practically _taste _it."

Carth nodded and stroked his scruffy beard as he digested the information, his rough fingers making a rasping noise against it. "And here people call _me_ paranoid," he said with a soft chuckle. Hestra had made a compelling argument, and it made sense. He also knew that the veteran was a practical soldier, she wouldn't have put up this much of a fuss if she didn't have the evidence to back it up.

"Well if you saw this commin', I'd have to say yer pretty validated," Hestra replied with a grin. She was a decent pazzak player and could tell she had Carth right where she wanted him.

"Alright." Carth nodded and stood up a little straighter, his hand dropping down to his side in a distinctly military, albeit very relaxed military, fashion. "So what are we going to do about it?"

"Well," Hestra replied. "For now I think the best thing is ta keep the Council and Bazzy unaware that we're catichin' on to 'em. We have ta know what they're up to afore we do anythin'. And then there's Ahlan Matale. He's implicatin' he won't keep quiet unless I look for his son."

Carth nodded, his jaw tightening and his face growing clouded with emotion. Hestra had seen that look enough times before to know what it meant, but she didn't say anything. "That should be easy enough," he said. "But why hasn't anyone else investigated?"

"The farmers've got no local authority, 'side from the Jedi," Hestra answered, laying out the facts much the same as she would have given a report. "They've looked in all the usual places, but haven't found 'im. Ahlan's been acusin' the Sandrals to anyone who'll listen, but he's been doin' it for years so the locals are ignorin' 'im. From the sound of thin's it looks like the Jedi agree. And he's been roamin' about the country side lately. The goin' theory is that kath hounds nabbed 'im."

"So we start by investigating the Sandrals," Carth said. His mouth twitched in a small smile. "Do you have something in mind? I don't think they'd appreciate us coming up to the door and asking directly about it."

Hestra chuckled. "That they wouldn't. I've got some information on the Sandrals. I'll fill you in over a fresh pot of caffa."

"Sounds good," Carth replied. He followed Hestra into the _Ebon Hawk's _main area where the kitchenette, and thus the caffa maker, was located. He'd been cooped up on the cargo freighter nearly the entire time it had been sitting on Dantooine, and he was grateful that he finally had something to do besides pass the time. He was also relieved that all his suspicions about Danika and Sabine had been justified, although this was something he would confess to no one but himself.

* * *

Danika reached the door set into the hillside first and Bastila and I paused just behind her. She reached out as if in a dream and ran her hands over the raised central portion. "I think its opened by using the Force," she said.

"There's no way to open it by hand?" I asked. I didn't like the prospect of going underground with a door that was only capable of being opened by the Force at my back. It offended my abilities as an engineer; I'd opened jammed and locked doors before, but no amount of tinkering could open this one. Both Danika and I were still new to this Force business and I didn't know about her, but I certainly didn't like to rely on it overmuch.

"No," Danika answered. She sounded as if she was distracted and I could feel the Force pulse from her. She stopped touching the door and took a half step away, moving her hand before the door as if she was waving it before a motion detector. The Force moved again, and the door opened. I took careful note of how she'd done it in case I needed to open it from the other side. **Chapter 26 **

**Render **

I surveyed Dantooine's expanse of rolling wilderness with narrowed eyes from the passenger seat of the speeder Danika and I had borrowed from the Jedi Enclave. Bastila sat uneasily in the middle of the rear seat, her posture indicating she was on high alert. I could understand why. This was voritor lizard country.

Although the area where the farmers were located was broken up into patches of grassland and blba forest the area where the ruins lay was on the forefront of the great plains. It was prime voritor lizard habitat, the creatures loving all the open space to sun themselves and to run. They were large reptiles, fully seven feet long from tip to tail. Although they moved deceptively slow most of the time they could be deadly fast when they charged and they had a massive skull full of needle sharp teeth to help them latch onto and tear apart prey. Unlike kath hounds that could be deterred by a vehicle or large groups a voritor lizard always saw humanoids as an easy meal. Even a Jedi would be hard pressed to fight one off.

From what I understood voritor lizards typically patrolled further into the great plains, but they were sometimes known to patrol this close to the blba forests. My gun was at the ready and in my lap, all my senses on the alert for the scaly predators.

As we approached the area where the ruins lay the grass changed to a much shorter variety and offered no concealment for large predators. One would think that the herbivores of the area would make use of such a place but they did not. Aside from the soft rustling of grass in the wind the area was eerily silent.

There were standing stones there just as there were at the cairn where Danika and I had met Juhani but this time it was obvious that they had been created by sentient creatures and not nature. They stood twice as tall as a human and had been carved into simple rectangular shapes with a chunk missing in the middle. Some of them leaned towards the ground as if conceding to the weight of time.

Danika stopped the speeder a few meters from a tall mound with a door buried in its side. Standing stones flanked either side of it as if to mark the passage towards it and stretching back from it was a length of land slightly raised above the rest. Beyond it the great plains stretched into the distance, grasses of varies types and sizes rippling in the wind and causing it to resemble a great green sea.

I hopped out of the speeder with my rifle at the ready and scanned the area while Danika locked down the vehicle. The hair on the back of my neck stood up on end as I did so, and in response I tentatively stretched out my awareness of the Force. There was a weight in the air, similar to the one I had felt in Juhani's grove but different as well. This was less an active oppression of the heart and mind than it was like something was just waiting. It crouched around us like a predator, confident and unconcerned. "How old is this place anyway?" I asked, directing my question to Bastila by looking at her.

"I don't know," she answered me, her face schooled into a perfect mask. I took a moment to check the bond and find that she was struggling to keep herself in check. "No one knows. They have been here as long as the Jedi have. What I understand from Master Dorak is that they were ruins even then."

"The Jedi haven't been here long," Danika said. She made no move towards the structure but instead seemed to be simply taking it in.

"The enclave was established about fifty years ago," Bastila stated evenly. She didn't say anything more and stood where she was, her perfect mask slipping into the slightest of frowns as she observed the ruins.

I left her to it and walked up to one of the standing stones, studying it from all angles, running my hands over the roughened stone. It had never been smooth, I thought. "I think these ruins are older than we think," I said at length. I swept my hand over the entirety of the small hill standing like a gate into the plains and its standing stones. "It looks like this was a complex once, but it was buried. It would take a very, very long time for it to form such a smooth hill like that."

Danika grunted and when I turned to look at her and Bastila I saw the Jedi Princess was biting her lip. Not enough to be really prominent but just enough to notice. She didn't like it here, that was obvious. But I didn't think it was because of the presence of the dark side hanging heavily in the air. She seemed reluctant to approach the heavy black door set into the hillside, as if doing so would erase a path she had hoped to follow and force her into one she didn't want to take.

And who was I to say that wasn't the case? It was a given by now that Bastila and the Council knew more than they were letting on.

"We should go in," Danika said. "Get this over with." She didn't wait for either Bastila or I to make the first move, continuing forward in a soldier's walk; slow enough to gather information and react quickly to an incoming attack, but fast enough to cover ground steadily. I followed her in the same manner. I felt a twinge as Bastila's control over the bond slipped and a small noise escaped from her as she regained her composure in the next instant. I could hear the crunch of her boots on the grass as she started after us, walking quickly to catch up.

The dark side energy that hovered over the ruins seemed to stir as the three of us walked towards the door set into the hillside, and immediately the bond on Bastila's end opened. She was a turmoil of uncertainty, guilt… and vulnerability. Danika and I fell back to walk next to her, reassuring her with the proximity of our bodies. _We're with you, and we're not going anywhere,_ was what we conveyed, radiating wary confidence to her through the bond. It seemed to help; I could feel her resolve strengthening. There were still undercurrents of emotion in her that did not match up with the current situation however and they stirred the fractured feeling in my mind. I looked over at her and for a moment, a space of time little more than the blink of the eye, I saw a much younger girl. Her face was open and confident, and she seemed happy.

Just as quickly as the image had come it was gone, but it left behind the uncomfortable feeling that I was missing something important. I was grateful Bastila was distracted and turned back to the door, now looming large in my vision. The dark side settled around us once again, as if it had assessed us and found that we were nothing to be concerned about. That in and of itself made me nervous, and I fought to conceal the emotion as Danika approached the door.

* * *

Carth's face was drawn into a sharp frown as he contemplated what Hestra had just told him. He and the veteran were currently alone on the _Ebon Hawk_, or as much as they could be. Canderous was working on the swoop bike in the garage and Mission and Zaalbar were currently pestering the Jedi at the Enclave. Hestra had taken pains to make sure they would be gone for a while. Mission didn't know about Sabine's relationship to the Matales, she hadn't uncovered anything that would tell a casual observer what was going on. Since Mission didn't seem like the type to keep a secret very well Hestra had decided to keep the information from her.

"So you're telling me that Sabine's really a Dantooine farmer named Seble Thornfeld?" Carth huffed. "That seems a little hard to believe, I've seen her in action." It was true. The woman was a terror in a firefight, and he had been grateful more than once after the destruction of the _Endar Spire_ that she was on his side. She'd clearly received combat training, and no farmer he'd ever met received combat training as part of their standard education. Still, the whole business with Danika, Sabine, and the Jedi Council had never sat well with him. If Hestra could provide sufficient evidence, he'd side with her. Until then he'd just as soon be skeptical, better to be paranoid where nobody could see it.

Hestra shook her head. "She's not an ex-farmer. She's an ex-Jedi." Once again she had slipped partly back into her Couruscanti accent so that she might be better understood. Carth had been surprised at first, but he had quickly overlooked it in favor of what the veteran had to say.

"Actually she's an ex-smuggler the Council's suddenly decided to make a Jedi," Carth pointed out, but Hestra could see that he wasn't disagreeing with her. He was just looking for proof. That was fine, she had plenty of proof.

"What I mean ta say is that she was raised _here_, on Dantooine, as a Jedi," Hestra emphasized her speech with small gestures of her hands, a habit she had thought she'd given up a long time ago. She was passionate about what she was saying, and that too surprised her. _I guess I've still got some gusto in these old bones, _she thought. "She was a full Knight, and she even went to fight in the Mando Wars. She didn't come back, so I'm thinking she stayed on for the current war. But something happened to cause her amnesia, and now the Council's got her back here. They're up to something fishy with her and Danika. I'm so close I can practically _taste _it."

Carth nodded and stroked his scruffy beard as he digested the information, his rough fingers making a rasping noise against it. "And here people call _me_ paranoid," he said with a soft chuckle. Hestra had made a compelling argument, and it made sense. He also knew that the veteran was a practical soldier, she wouldn't have put up this much of a fuss if she didn't have the evidence to back it up.

"Well if you saw this commin', I'd have to say yer pretty validated," Hestra replied with a grin. She was a decent pazzak player and could tell she had Carth right where she wanted him.

"Alright." Carth nodded and stood up a little straighter, his hand dropping down to his side in a distinctly military, albeit very relaxed military, fashion. "So what are we going to do about it?"

"Well," Hestra replied. "For now I think the best thing is ta keep the Council and Bazzy unaware that we're catichin' on to 'em. We have ta know what they're up to afore we do anythin'. And then there's Ahlan Matale. He's implicatin' he won't keep quiet unless I look for his son."

Carth nodded, his jaw tightening and his face growing clouded with emotion. Hestra had seen that look enough times before to know what it meant, but she didn't say anything. "That should be easy enough," he said. "But why hasn't anyone else investigated?"

"The farmers've got no local authority, 'side from the Jedi," Hestra answered, laying out the facts much the same as she would have given a report. "They've looked in all the usual places, but haven't found 'im. Ahlan's been acusin' the Sandrals to anyone who'll listen, but he's been doin' it for years so the locals are ignorin' 'im. From the sound of thin's it looks like the Jedi agree. And he's been roamin' about the country side lately. The goin' theory is that kath hounds nabbed 'im."

"So we start by investigating the Sandrals," Carth said. His mouth twitched in a small smile. "Do you have something in mind? I don't think they'd appreciate us coming up to the door and asking directly about it."

Hestra chuckled. "That they wouldn't. I've got some information on the Sandrals. I'll fill you in over a fresh pot of caffa."

"Sounds good," Carth replied. He followed Hestra into the _Ebon Hawk's _main area where the kitchenette, and thus the caffa maker, was located. He'd been cooped up on the cargo freighter nearly the entire time it had been sitting on Dantooine, and he was grateful that he finally had something to do besides pass the time. He was also relieved that all his suspicions about Danika and Sabine had been justified, although this was something he would confess to no one but himself.

* * *

To Be Continued…

7


	27. Chapter 27

Gone For Good Chapter 26; Render

**Chapter 27**

**Timing**

Danika reached the door set into the hillside first and Bastila and I paused just behind her. She reached out as if in a dream and ran her hands over the raised central portion. "I think it's opened by using the Force," she said.

"There's no way to open it by hand?" I asked. I didn't like the prospect of going underground with a door that was only capable of being opened by the Force at my back. It offended my abilities as an engineer; I'd opened jammed and locked doors before, but no amount of tinkering could open this one. Both Danika and I were still new to this Force business and I didn't know about her, but I certainly didn't like to rely on it overmuch.

"No," Danika answered. She sounded as if she was distracted and I could feel the Force pulse from her. She stopped touching the door and took a half step away, moving her hand before the door as if she was waving it before a motion detector. The Force moved again, and the door opened. I took careful note of how she'd done it in case I needed to open it from the other side.

Bastila tensed next to me as the door opened and I wondered if I'd have to shove her bodily inside. Danika showed no such hesitation, stepping easily into the doorway as if we'd been here dozens of times before. Bastila followed her only moments later and I felt a flicker of a thrill of sharp fear from her through the bond. But it wasn't a personal fear. She wasn't afraid for herself, she was afraid for Danika.

I had to fight hard to suppress my reaction to that as I followed both women through the door. I'd have to bring it up much later, when I was far enough away from Bastila that the subtleties of my thoughts wouldn't leak to her through our bond.

The first thing I noticed was that there was a slight breeze inside the antechamber beyond the door. The hair on the back of my neck immediately stood on end because the first thing that told me was that piece of information told me was that there were ventilation systems here. The structure looked to be way too old for any systems to be still functional, having sat without maintenance for untold decades, more likely centuries. _How would they even still have power?_ I wondered. There weren't any sources for geothermal energy in the immediate area and I'd seen no evidence of solar harvesters. Nothing else would have been able to maintain a useable energy source this long.

"Do the two of you feel that?" Danika asked, pausing a healthy distance away from the only other door in the antechamber. Her body was slightly tense and yet calm at the same time, the exact same stance she used when she was searching for an enemy. Most anyone would have thought such an observation strange, but Danika and I had pulled many a dangerous job as smugglers. More times than I cared to think about that had led us into situations very similar to those faced on a battlefield; one small squad against another, seeking and being sought in return.

"You are referring to the breeze?" Bastila asked. "I do feel it. Perhaps there is another entrance to this place." Her stance was unconcerned, even casual. She didn't have very much experience with these types of situations, I thought. And that made sense. She was usually at the back of a battle, using her Battle Meditation to reinforce the soldiers with her.

"Or maybe there's an active ventilation system," I said. "I doubt there's another entrance. There was nothing but grass on top of this hill." I had not taken a terribly good look at the terrain above where we now stood, but I still remembered the layout well. A well trained engineer's eye had caught information that might be pertinent, such as the unnatural lines of artificial construction. I had seen none, merely the softly humped shape of a hill. There was no possibility I had missed one on the opposite side of the hill because it had shifted smoothly into the flat plain in a curve too shallow to hide the hollow a door would form. That didn't necessarily mean that there were no ventilation shafts leading to the surface; any still uncovered by dirt would have been well hidden by the tall grass.

"But these ruins are ancient," Bastila protested, looking distinctly distraught by having her world view tilted so sharply. "Surely nothing would have functioned for this long."

"That's the point," Danika said. "No technology I know of could have held up. That means that either someone is still here, or whoever built this place had some kind of miracle tech."

"You know I think I'd prefer the miracle tech," I replied. "I'd really like to be able to not kill anybody today."

"Heh," Danika chuckled. "That's one of the worst sentences I've heard you string together. Your childhood language instructor must be thrashing and wailing right about now."

"Hey, you aren't exactly Miss Perfect Grammar over there," I shot back.

"Surely the two of you are joking?" Bastila asked, looking back and forth between us with wide, disbelieving eyes. "We're investigating ruins that may have given the two most powerful Sith Lords in history the secret to defeating the republic and you're arguing about _grammar_?"

"We're not arguing," I said with a falsely serious face and a much too cheerful tone. "We're bantering."

Danika rolled her eyes. "Leave the poor girl alone," she said. "She does have a point."

I wrinkled my nose and strode past my ex-smuggling partner with the smell of old dust and stone thick in the back of my throat. "Spoilsport," I muttered.

"I heard that, Smartass," Danika said as she followed. Behind her I could hear a strangled noise come from Bastila and couldn't help but grin. It was entirely too easy to antagonize her.

And antagonizing Bastila took my mind off the creepy architecture of the ruins. They barely lived up to the name, the dark smooth stone coated with only the thinnest layer of dust. The walls were carved into intricate abstract designs and gave no clues as to the identity of the creators. Normally the size and shape of any given building told of the general height and shape of the builders, but not so with this one. The ceiling was tall enough to easily accommodate most humanoid species in the galaxy, and even more so. It was tall enough to be opulent. Unseen scones in the ceiling provided just enough light to see well, but not enough for a human to be comfortable.

As I stepped up to the door leading out of the antechamber I thought I'd have to open it by hand, but before I could reach out to the Force to pull the energy I needed to do so it opened of its own accord. My sensitive nose was immediately assaulted by the smell of decay, old blood and death, and I reached up to hold my nose closed with one hand while I hefted by rifle with the other. I was perfectly capable of wielding it one-handed, at least for a little while. I held it unnaturally steady, and I knew that it was due to strength beyond that of a typical human. I kept focused on the smell of death, which caused slight rumbles of hunger and a heightened awareness of my surroundings, in order to suppress thoughts and emotions that might show up on Bastila's radar. I continued through the door tense and ready for a fight, checking all my corners and keeping alert for subtle movement in the shadows.

The room was empty, save for a large cylindrical droid perched on four three jointed insect-like legs and a corpse dressed in the robes of a Jedi Knight sprawled a few meters to my right. I scanned the entire area quickly, changing my eyes so that the room was bright enough to cast definition into the corners. When Danika moved past me to examine the corpse I changed them back. I let go of my nose as I focused on studying the droid. I didn't like smelling rotting flesh but knew I'd have to get used to it if we were going to spend any length of time here.

Bastila moved with Danika, and I could sense the grim calm through the bond as she examined the corpse. "It's Nemo," she said quietly. "The Knight the Council sent to investigate these ruins before us."

"One mission objective down," Danika said, but out of respect to Bastila kept her tone less than jovial. We had both seen death enough that we dealt with it by making light of it in the moment, letting emotions spill over in quiet moments when we finally had time to heal. Bastila had not learned this trick, so Danika avoided upsetting her by finishing her joke.

A pointed part on the bottom of the droid oscillated constantly and from the soft puffs of air it emitted I worked out that it was some sort of primitive cooling unit. A simple camera unit that must have served it as an optical interface flickered unsteady light as it swiveled to study all three of us, and mounted right next to it was a long tube that had the clear, sharp lines of a weapon. It didn't look functional, the angle was bent slightly and the metal looked worn and pockmarked. I was amazed the material wasn't fatigued.

Parts of the droid's main body moved constantly in a way that told me it wasn't in full working order. Damn close however, and I itched to take it apart to see how it worked. I didn't have more of a chance to think about it as the droid raised itself up slightly so that its optical interface was level with the average height of our heads and started emitting what sounded like a language, though none I readily recognized.

"Oh well that's just _peachy_," Danika said, her voice dripping with disgust. "The one thing we find in this place that might be able to tell us what's going on and it can't even speak Basic."

Seemingly as if it had understood her, the droid switched to a different language, also one I didn't recognize. "That's not working either," I told it. Its optical interface swiveled to me and it immediately switched to yet another language.

"It appears to be trying to communicate by cycling through multiple languages," Bastila said, approaching the droid slowly as she spoke. "Every time it spoke it was using a very different dialect. It probably understands us."

Danika snorted. "Damn thing better be programmed with one we can understand. Who builds a droid that can't speak Basic?" She glared at the droid in disgust at its lack of practicality.

"It might have been built before Basic got too widespread. That would explain why it can understand Basic but isn't programmed to speak it; the language wasn't spoken by a majority of space faring beings yet," I replied thoughtfully. The droid cycled through yet another language and adjusted its sitting height with its legs several times in a gesture that seemed to indicate it was frustrated.

"That's impossible," Bastila stated indignantly. "Basic has been used as a common tongue since the very beginning of the Republic. This droid cannot _possibly_ be older than that."

"Stranger things have happened," I replied, my words almost a mutter. I could feel a sort of pull on my memory, like I was forgetting something very important. Had I seen this droid before?

"_I can reproduce any of the languages spoken by the slaves of the builders,"_ the droid said, although it seemed weary, resigned to not being understood yet again.

"Stop there, we understood that!" I spoke quickly before the droid could cycle to another language. The act of speaking broke off whatever memory had risen close to the surface of my mind and I had a quick moment of frustration before I managed to get myself under control. Fortunately Bastila was distracted by the now-understandable droid. Such seemed to be the story of my life lately, and I worried about the moment my luck ran out. I hoped that it was as far away from the Dantooine Jedi Council as possible when it finally did.

"It's an archaic dialect of Selkath, spoken on Manaan," Bastila said. "But why would a droid on Dantooine be programmed with ancient Selkath?"

"How the hell can we even _understand_ ancient Selkath?" Danika asked, making a face. "I don't remember taking a learning annex on it, and I'm pretty sure that's something I'd remember doing."

"The Force provides all understanding," Bastila replied hurriedly. She was saved from having to answer further questions as the droid spoke again.

"_Communication was vital to ensure that the slaves constructed this temple according to the wishes of the builders," _it said. My ears twitched at the rough sounds of ancient Selkath as well as at how the thing had lifted itself up so that I was a good couple of inches taller than we were. It seemed to convey a smug satisfaction as if it had just done something genius. My fingers twitched above the trigger of my slugthrower, held across my chest with the business end pointing only at stone. That type of arrogance always pissed me off.

Danika snorted again and chucked wryly. "Looks like we found ourselves another Smartass," she said.

"Don't count on it," I said, hefting my rifle. "Let me anywhere close to it and I'll strip it down for parts. Or shoot it. It looks like it can move at a decent clip and it's been too long since I had the opportunity for live target practice."

"Be quiet!" Bastila hissed, clearly annoyed with our bantering. "Let it finish what it was saying."

"There was more?" Danika asked mock-incredulously. Her efforts earned a fierce glare from the younger woman, which I admired. A little more practice and the little brunette might make a respectable intimidating figure. Of course she'd have to lose the peach-colored Jedi armor first. Nobody was going to take her seriously dressed in that.

As the droid continued to speak I studied it and saw that Bastila was right. Danika had cut it off, and it was clearly upset about it. It displayed its feelings on the subject by raising itself up on its legs and then bobbing down several times like an agitated bird. "_You are not of the slave species, but you are not the Builders either," _it said. _"You are like the ones before." _

"It must mean Revan and Malak," Bastila said. "They must have encountered this droid when they explored these ruins. She was no longer trying to be intimidating. Rather she looked uncertain and I could feel that she was once again afraid. This time Danika and I stood apart from her, both physically and through the bond.

"_Wonderful,_" Danika moaned. I eyed her critically for the sheer level of disgust in her voice, and when I focused in on her face I could see how tightly the muscles there were held. She was nervous about something, which made me take a mental note to sleep with her flask next to my hip that night.

"Well, that's what we're here for," I said grimly. I turned to the droid before speaking again. "What information did you give the others that were here?" I asked the droid.

A question that was promptly and brusquely ignored. _"I am the Overseer,"_ it said with a distinct note of pride. _"The Builders programmed me to enforce discipline among the slaves while this monument to the power of the Star Forge was constructed. At project completion all slaves were executed. I was programmed to serve should a Builder return in search of knowledge of the Star Forge."_

"Star Forge," Danika asked, bristling as if she'd been stuck with a pin. "What's the Star Forge?"

"_The Star Forge is the glory of the Builders, the apex of their glorious empire. It is a machine of invincible might, a tool of unstoppable conquest." _When it was done the droid paused and collected around itself an air of expectance, as if we should be immensely impressed by its pronouncement.

"Uh huh," I said. Danika and Bastila both had looks of incredulity on their faces and I was frowning. If the droid wanted a yes man, he wasn't going to find one here. "So what does this invincible machine do exactly?" I asked.

The droid paused before it spoke as if it couldn't believe we were actually asking it that kind of question. _"The… the Star Forge is the glory of the Builders, the apex of their glorious empire. It is a machine of invincible might, a tool of unstoppable conquest." _When the droid stopped speaking it lowered itself slightly so that I was just beneath our average head height, as if it was confused.

Danika sighed heavily next to me, and fought not to moan in frustration. "You don't actually know what the thing does, do you?" She asked.

"It _sounds_ as if this… Star Forge is some sort of weapon," Bastila said. "But it could be anything."

"Great," I replied. "So we're back to square one."

"No," Danika said. The tone of her voice was odd, and when I looked at her she was staring into the middle distance as if she could see something we couldn't. A shiver ran down my spine at the sight, and the Force around us moved like a tide shifting in a sea. "Maybe it's a factory of sorts? A shipyard?"

"That would explain how the Sith amassed a fleet so quickly," Bastila said slowly.

"There has to be more to it than that," I insisted. The whole thing sat oddly with me, as if a piece of very important information was missing and just beyond my reach. "I mean the Republic hasn't gotten any word on this thing, otherwise we'd know about it, right Bastila?"

"Yes," she answered and I was somewhat relieved to see that she was troubled as well. "There should have been something… anything, even a mere whisper through the spy network. So whatever the Star Forge may be, the Sith are guarding its secrets to well for it to be insignificant."

"But what about the creators of the Star Forge?" I asked. "The droid said someone called the Builders made it. How come we haven't heard of them before?"

Danika focused in on the droid, coming out of her weird trance with a frown. "Who are the Builders?" she asked it.

"_The Builders are the great masters of the galaxy, the conquerors of worlds," _the droid announced proudly, raising itself up above our average eye level once more. _"They are the rulers of the Infinite Empire and the creators of the Star Forge." _

I wrinkled my nose in disgust. "Why do I get the sinking feeling that's all its going say on that subject?" I asked.

Danika huffed softly. "Because you're probably right…" she answered, and then turned to the droid. "How long have you been here?"

"A good question," Bastila said softly. "These Builders are not mentioned anywhere that I know of. Even the Jedi Archives are silent on the subject. They must be an extinct people."

"And the droid's making out like they ruled over half the galaxy," I replied. "I'm pretty sure I would have had heard of that. The hutts control a lot of space, but they never formally founded an empire."

"_My chronological circuits have marked over ten full revolutions of this system's outermost planet around the sun since the Builders have left." _

The answer was so casual, so matter of fact, and yet it caused a wave of shock in the Force around all of us. "That's impossible!" Bastila cried. "Ten full revolutions would take more than twenty thousand years! If this is true then this droid is nearly five thousand years older than the Republic itself! There has to be a mistake!"

Danika shook her head and gave a chuckle as she looked at me. "See, miracle tech," she said in a half disgusted, half sarcastic voice.

"_There is no mistake,"_ the droid growled out huffily. _"The Builders constructed my chronological circuitry using the technology of the Star Forge itself. My calculations are infallible." _

Danika made a disgusted face at the droid. I understood where she was coming from; I'd never met a droid so haughty before! I sighed. "No point in arguing with it," I said. "It'll only repeat itself again. I doubt we'll be able to learn anything specific about the Builders or the Star Forge."

"Tell us about Malak and Revan," Danika said suddenly, her expression one of intense concentration. "The ones who came before us."

"_The ones who came before you," _the droid repeated, pushing the words through its vocabulator as if it was turning them over. "_They were not Builders, but not slaves. They sought knowledge of the Star Forge and its origins. I am programmed for this task, but all who seek knowledge and are not the Builders must prove themselves worthy of its legacy. The ones who came before you proved themselves worthy. They discovered the secrets locked beyond the sealed door behind me. But there was another who failed to unlock the secrets and paid the ultimate price." _

None of us looked at each other at the mention of Nemo. We didn't have to. Bastila must have known him, for a small pang sounded from her and reverberated through the bond at the mention of the dead Jedi's name. "Revan and Malak were here," Bastila said softly. "They pursued knowledge of the Star Forge and succeeded, and now Malak is using it to wreak havoc on the Republic." She looked over at us, her powder blue eyes big and full of sadness and regret. The same emotions came clearly through the bond. "We have to find out more. We must discover what they uncovered… the Republic is depending on us."

I glanced over at Danika, who was calm in the bond but to me, who knew her so well, I could see the resignation and the reluctance. "Well," she said just as softly, her voice echoing against the stone walls, "I'm not one for patriotism, never was really, but we can't just let those Sith run loose now can we? Malak's definitely made a mess of things and anything we can do to help stop that is worth it."

I nodded in answer to the silent question in her words. _Is this really the right thing to do? _"Yes, it's definitely worth it," I said firmly. It was odd, to see Danika so unsure of herself, but at the same time it was no surprise. Ever since I had known her, ever since she had lost the original crew of the _Urusai_, she had seemed lost. Maybe now, with the full crew of the _Ebon Hawk,_ she could finally find her way again. I already knew I would find my way; my fractured memories were proof enough of that.

"Okay, droid," Danika said, her voice gaining authority and volume, "tell us what we need to do to prove ourselves."

The droid lifted itself up again, full of purpose, and spoke. "_Enter the chambers to the left and right of me, and pass the tests given there, and you may be proven worthy_." It remained lifted up, its oscillating parts as slow as they could go, and waited.

I looked at Bastila and Danika in turn, lifted my blaster rifle and cocked my head with a small smile. "Well then the only question is, who wants to go first?"

To Be Continued…

8


	28. Chapter 28

Gone For Good Chapter 28; Placement

**Chapter 28 **

**Placement **

"_Tell me why I'm stuck with the kid again," _Canderous growled over Hestra's comlink.

" 'Cause this i' adul' bi'ness an' I trust Carth no' te git trigger happy," Hestra replied, though she was smiling. Carth stayed silent but shook his head. He didn't find anything about the big Mandalorian amusing.

"_I can be civil; if I have to," _Canderous said. _"I don't see what's so adult about visiting a bunch of farmers." _

Hestra snorted. She understood that he was going stir crazy, they all were! And she gladly would have taken him with her to investigate Shen Matale's disappearance, if he hadn't been sleeping with Sabine. She couldn't ask him to keep such a secret as her true identity from her. "I wouldn't trust ye to be civil if ye had a blaster poin'ed at yer head," she told him. "As fer th' farmers, I'll tell ya later." Without further comment she ended the conversation and put her comlink back in its pouch.

Carth made a noise in the back of his throat after she was done talking. "I don't trust him," he said. He half hoped that Canderous caught the comment before she shut off her comlink.

"An' I'm no' askin' ye too," Hestra replied. "All I'm askin' is tha' ye don' shoot 'im in th' back. He's damn good ina fight, an' we'll likely be needin' 'im la'er."

"I'll think about it," Carth told her in a surly tone. He checked over the speeder's readouts again, even though he knew he didn't need to. Canderous had recently given it a full tune-up, which had been double-checked by Sabine, so it was running better than it had when it had been manufactured. After having lived on the ship with the smuggler turned Jedi he had come to trust her mechanical skills. He didn't trust Canderous however, and he was sure he never would.

However despite his misgivings about the Mandalorian Carth knew he trusted Hestra. She was a soldier, like him, and had several decades more of experience. She had plenty of secrets, displayed prominently by how she switched her accent around with such ease, but she never seemed to let them come between them and defending her fellows. She was the kind of person Carth could easily identify with.

Hestra shifted in the speeder's front passenger seat and touched her shoulder where the strap for her blaster rifle normally rested. She was only carrying her single pistol now, as Carth was carrying his twin ones. He was a pilot and used to traveling light, weapons wise, but he knew enough of Hestra now to know that she had made a career out of being an infantry soldier; she was used to being armed to the teeth and had grown comfortable with it. The absence of those weapons now made her feel just a fraction off-balance. He could easily sympathize; he couldn't say he was very thrilled about approaching the Sandral estate without a full arsenal either.

Unlike the Matale estate, which had been lightly defended by battle droids, the Sandral estate had been turned into a rural fortress. The building itself was sprawled over a wide valley that rolled into gentle hills before escalating into the low mesas Dantooine was littered with. It was surrounded by low walls, nothing most beings of humanoid height couldn't jump easily, but enough to present cover to defenders and provide more difficult targets to attackers. Groups of battle droids patrolled inside the wall and single flying droids were positioned nearly a mile away from the estate. Carth brought the speeder to a halt near one, its lights having flashed red in warning and the speeder's instruments buzzing as they approached.

"State your names and your business with the Sandral family," the droid demanded in a monotone that sounded distinctly designed to upset organic beings. Both Carth and Hestra knew better than to react however. Not that it would matter much to the droid, most combat droids had little regard for the feelings of organics. The droid had been placed there specifically to unsettle visitors, psychological warfare on one of its most simple levels.

Carth answered the droid by virtue of being in the pilot's chair. "We're new to Dantooine," Carth said smoothly. "While we're here we are investigating some… recent happenings for a few friends of ours. Please tell the Sandral family that we believe it could take care of certain negative activity in regards to the Jedi Council for them." It was a subtle and diplomatic approach, and a tactic that had served him well in the past. Although he was mostly a throttle jockey, as they were affectionately called in the Republic Armed Forces, he had some experience on delicate matters. He had needed to be delicate, when searching for his son.

Although his face remained passive Carth sighed inside, and he rubbed the ring he still wore. He had ventured into hotly contested space looking for his son, and although the memories of that long search were painful they were applicable. In both situations, he was forced to draw things out into a battle of words and information instead of a physical fight.

The droid remained passive as it processed Carth's words and relayed them back to the estate. It took some time, but it finally became active again. "You are free to enter the premises," it said, and the indicator light in its abdomen flashed green. Carth gently eased the speeder's yolk forward, sliding the vehicle inside the carefully established perimeter of the Sandral estate.

Hestra discreetly observed the landscape around them as the speeder progressed. Carth recognized the look; she was memorizing the landscape. He let her do so and focused on keeping the speeder aimed straight for the Sandral estate's landing pad. "G'd landing," Hestra commented in a huffing exhale. Carth nodded at her in response as he powered down the speeder.

Almost before they had gotten out of the speeder the door of the Sandral estate facing the landing pad opened. Several guard droids, bulkier and meaner looking models than had been present at the Matale estate, moved to flank the woman who emerged. She was actually a few inches taller than Ahlan Matale was, Hestra noted, and her skin was a rich dark hue. Her eyes were as black as space but her matching dark hair was distinguished with a few streaks of grey. She had a definite hostile note to her gate, her shoulders held as if she expected to fight at any moment. Both Carth and Hestra could tell that she had very little to no formal combat training, but they were wary of her anyway. If she didn't have the training, she definitely had the attitude.

"So," she said, her voice just as aggressive as her body language. "You've come on behalf of the Jedi Council."

"Actually no," Carth answered. In contrast to the woman both his body language and tone were as mild as they could get. "We're here on behalf of Ahlan Matale, and to clear up a misunderstanding. We're staying here on the good will of the Jedi, however, and we've heard of the recent uproar Mr. Matale has made and we'd like to see things settle down; if you catch my meaning that is." He added a friendly, apologetic smile to his last sentence as if she might understand the earful he wanted to imply he was getting.

The woman's eyes narrowed and her hostile expression remained unchanged. Her dark eyes moved from him to Hestra slowly, studying them as she thought things over. After a minute she nodded and her expression softened a few fractions. "I am Janeth Sandral," she said. "Please, come in. Introduce yourselves, ask all the questions you want, and perhaps we can see this to a tidy end." She spoke a few commands to the droids and they went back to their former posts. She turned to walk back into her estate without gesturing to Carth and Hestra, but they followed her anyway.

"I'm Carth Onasi and this is Hestra Kahn," Carth said politely as they followed Janeth. "Hopefully we won't take up too much of your time."

Janeth sniffed, a scoffing sound. "Only if I'm lucky," she said, and waved a hand impatiently. "Get on with it."

Neither Carth nor Hestra were put off by the woman's gruff manner, and Hestra spoke up with the first question. "Ahlan's been givin' the Jedi an earful about how you did somethin' to his son," she said. "Why would he be so quick to accuse you?"

"Because we've been rivals for a long time," Janeth answered, sighing. "It didn't start out that way, you understand, but it has progressed into something nasty over the years."

"No," Carth replied. "Actually I don't understand. Please, we haven't been on Dantooine for very long. What happened?" For a moment he was afraid he'd hit a nerve as Janeth's body tensed and she looked ready to spring from her chair and leave.

Just when it seemed their investigation was off to a bad start, Janeth finally relented and spoke. "We were engaged," she said. "When we were both young, and Dantooine had barely been settled. We were supposed to unite our families, and our companies. Ahlan broke off the engagement in order to marry a farmer's daughter, and I never forgave him," she said. Her tone was a mix of quiet anger and bitterness. It was clear that she had never gotten over Ahlan leaving her, and suddenly both Carth and Hestra wished fervently that they had Bastila, Danika, or Sabine with them. They would be able to tell if Janeth was holding anything back. She might relent and tell them of what she knew of Ahlan's missing son, or she might not. Without a Jedi, or Jedi in training, present, there was no way to tell of her true intentions.

Hestra looked away from Janeth for a moment and her face tightened. Carth couldn't tell what she was thinking and knew he wouldn't ask her about it until later, if he did at all. He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to hear that, ma'am," he said. "Do you know anything about what's happened to Shen Matale? No matter how upset you are with his father I'm sure you'd agree that getting him back to his family as quickly as possible is the best thing that can happen here."

Janeth nodded. "Yes, I can agree." Her eyes twinkled and her expression grew cold. "I too, have a son who is missing. I haven't seen or heard of Shen's whereabouts… and when you see Ahlan again, tell him I'd like to see my Casus back safely as well."

Hestra studied Janeth in silence, and Carth frowned slightly. They both got the hint, Janeth was holding Shen and was willing to trade him for Casus. Neither soldier liked being a messenger of such news, but considering Ahlan's threat to take his Sabine's true identity to the Jedi Council they had little choice. Hestra stood first. "Well, in tha' case I s'ppose we shou' scoot on outta here," she said.

"Yes," Janeth said, her eyes still cold as she watched Carth rise. "You should."

Carth and Hestra returned to the Matale estate in silence. They didn't need to discuss what had just happened, the next move was up to Ahlan Matale. Carth sighed as he thought about it, hoping that the man would make the right decision, if he was in fact keeping Casus Sandral somewhere. There was always the possibility he wasn't, and although that would have been good in the sense that it didn't make Ahlan a kidnapper, it would have been bad in the sense that it would do no good for Shen. There was no guarantee that Janeth would simply let her old fiancé's son go when she was told that he didn't have her son.

There was no wait as Hestra requested permission to enter the premises this time. The guard droid simply told her that she was welcome to enter, and gave her instructions to where she could find Ahlan. They hadn't gone more than a few feet down the main hall before they were assaulted by a small group of children. They had been racing down the hall, the two older ones careful not to lose their much younger and smaller companion, and had halted suddenly to avoid running into the strangers. The two oldest, who were identical boys with black hair and eyes and perhaps ten or eleven years old, greeted them warmly. "Hi!" They said in unison.

Carth, who had dealt with young boys before, smiled at the twins. "Hello," he said. "I'm Carth and this is Hestra. What are your names?"

"I'm Timon!" The first one said. "And I'm Vance," the second finished. "And this is our sister Seble!" They announced in unison. The little girl that was with them looked to be about four or five years old and to both Carth and Hestra's shock was the spitting image of Sabine, though her blond hair was a shade darker and her eyes a more clear blue. She looked up at the strange adults, stuck her thumb in her mouth, and giggled.

Carth, who was used to strange coincidences due to his paranoia, recovered first. He looked at the first twin who had spoken. "Well Timon, do you know where you're parent's are?" He asked. "We'd like to speak with them if we could."

The twins gave each other a look that spoke volumes, and of course mirrored the others actions perfectly. Carth had encountered twins before, his son had been friends with a pair of twins, but he'd never met a pair quite so eerie before. "We can do that," Timon answered, and Carth could tell that it was an effort for both twins not to speak in unison. Before they could turn and lead the way their sister eyed Carth, frowned and held out her arms to him as she made a fussing noise. "Hey, she likes you!" Vance declared. "She wants you to pick her up."

Carth knew that already but he didn't say so. He hadn't held a small child since his son all those years ago… swallowing the memory, he hoisted the little girl into his arms. She shrieked happily and bounced in his arms.

" 'R ye alrigh', Carth?" Hestra asked, and when he looked up from little Seble he realized he must have had an odd look on his face.

Carth shook his head. "I'm fine," he said softly. Hestra snorted as if she disbelieved him but said nothing further, for which he was grateful.

The twins shrugged, and together they all walked down the hall. Hestra eyed the little girl in Carth's arms dubiously as she tugged on his hair, but said nothing. Carth didn't seem to mind, so she would leave it at that.

To Be Continued…

4


	29. Chapter 29

Gone For Good Chapter 29; Predawn

**Chapter 29 **

**Walkabout**

"So," I said, "the only question is, who wants to go first?" The question hung in the air, and Danika gave me a rather bland look that said perhaps this wasn't the place for sarcasm. I shrugged at her. You win some, you lose some.

My old friend sighed. "Bastila, you feel like taking point? You've got the most experience with a lightsaber. Sab and I are going to stick with our guns for now."

Bastila looked dubious, but finally she unclipped her lightsaber from her belt, drew herself up regally, and nodded. She stepped forward towards one of the doors the droid had indicated and Danika and I fell into step behind her. I lowered my slughthrower rifle, aiming it so that I could fire around Bastila, and clicked off its safety mechanism. Next to me, registered only in my peripheral vision as I moved forward, Danika did a similar dance with her own heavy blaster rifle.

I put out of my mind any thoughts of what might be behind the door as Bastila approached it, we'd find out soon enough after all. Still, I reached out with the Force to see if I could discover anything. I sensed no signs of organic life, only a blank room and a thrill of danger. I knew from what Danika and I had learned at the hands of the Jedi so far that droids could not be sensed through the force, nor could any other mechanical devices. The Force was a product of life, and technology contained nothing but cold, unfeeling parts.

The hum of a lightsaber filled the room, and I turned my eyes away briefly in order to shield them from the sudden glow of yellow light. Holding her double-blade before her in a defensive posture, Bastila used the Force to open the door before us. There was a moment of tension in the air and a sudden calm through the bond as all three of us found our quiet place within ourselves from which we rode into battle.

Although the door opened quickly it didn't seem to be quick enough for what waited beyond it. As soon as a crack began to appear, blaster fire erupted through it. Bastila moved her lightsaber to bat the barrage away harmlessly, her fluid movements timed perfectly with aid from the Force. For no reason that I could fathom I felt a surge of pride as she executed her Jedi skills so flawlessly.

Trusting Bastila to take care of the fire, I took aim over her shoulder as the door rapidly opened wider. It revealed a droid almost identical to the one we had spoken with, save for the fact that this one had intact weapons. Its plating was damaged and repaired in sections but it all looked to me made of the same material. I fired at its oscillating parts and the join of its spider-like legs to its body as it advanced on us and raised itself up slightly. It didn't speak but did emit electronic sounds every few moments. It sounded like a primitive form of the common verbal shorthand used when droids spoke to each other.

Bastila advanced as well and now that the door was fully open she was free to deflect fire back at the droid instead of having to bat it harmlessly to the side. Combined with efforts from Danika's heavy blaster rifle and my slugthrower it created a constant barrage of fire that few droids could have withstood for long. This particular droid held out longer than most, but the design was fundamentally flawed for combat. Its legs gave out first, crashing the entire thing to the ground. Bastila rushed forward then, deflecting most of the fire but leaving Danika and I to dance out of the way of the rest with the help of the Force. She closed in on it incredibly fast and slashed at its joints with her lightsaber, reducing it to scrap in a few short seconds.

Danika and I jogged up to Bastila and the fallen droid to make sure it was down for good. Danika kicked one of the dismembered pieces, careful of the edge that still glowed from the heat of Bastila's lightsaber. "Pretty shavit miracle tech," she said.

I crouched down next to the droid, clicking the safety on my slugthrower back on and swinging it over my shoulder so it would be out of the way. Next to me Bastila deactivated her lightsaber and Danika shouldered her heavy rifle. I picked through the droid and pried off a panel of its main torso. Inside was a mess of parts and wires, mostly fried by short circuits and burns. Only some of it looked recent, but overall the technology was pretty primitive. "I'm surprised this thing has blasters at all," I said. "From its insides it should have primitive projectile weapons, if anything."

Danika snorted. "Shavit miracle tech," she said again, emphasizing it as if her statement should sum the whole thing up.

Which it did quite nicely, actually. "Still, it's lasted an incredibly long time," I replied. I turned over the piece of paneling in my hands. "I wonder if this is a unique ore or something."

"The droid mentioned a test…" Bastila ventured, her tone bordering on irritated. Before responding to her I found a smaller section of plating and attached it to my belt. I wasn't an expert on ores and metal, but I could find someone who was. I was curious about the makeup of these strange droids.

"There's a terminal over there," Danika said. I looked over to where she was pointing and saw it immediately.

The room was a simple rectangle, holding little more than the destroyed droid and the terminal at the end. Unlike the room where the… for lack of a better description I decided to designate it the reception droid, had greeted us and told us about being 'deemed worthy' this room was bare. The walls were of the same black stone, but they were simple blank slabs. Not a carving or a relief in sight, something that made me mildly curious as to the thoughts of whoever designed the place but had no other significance at the moment.

"Perhaps it will give us a clue as to what we must do," Bastila said. She started walking towards the terminal, and Danika and I followed with a snort from Danika's petite nose.

"Yeah, here's hoping it'll speak something more recent than ancient Selkath," Danika grumbled. I resisted the urge to kick her. I knew the Jedi didn't believe in luck, but I did and I didn't want Danika to ruin the chances of the terminal being compatible with modern tech. Danika pulled Bastila off as she went to touch the terminal. "Let Sab take care of it, she's the engineer around here."

I ignored the two of them and looked over the terminal with a critical eye. It had been designed to be at a comfortable height for whatever species had built it, which thankfully had a similar standard height to most humanoids. It had a readout, information entry pad, and several interfaces that faced me. One looked about right for a datapad, so I took mine out and lined up the connections. Datapads were designed to be as universal as possible, but having seen the inside of the mystery combat droid I was uncertain if that would help or hinder.

It helped. The datapad clicked into the interface and both machines hummed with a note that made me close my lips tightly over my teeth to suppress a growl. It sounded like the terminal and the datapad were circling each other in the manner of kath hounds in a fighting pit. I smacked the terminal lightly. "Behave!" I snarled at it.

I heard Bastila protest and Danika answer, which I ignored. As if it had understood me the terminal stopped humming and basic scrolled over the datapad's screen. "Frack you," I told it.

"What's that?" Danika asked, covering Bastila's indignant protest at my language.

"Damn thing is struggling to translate," I answered as I tapped on the screen, inputting lines of code to try and smooth the process. "Fracking _shavit_ miracle tech!"

"Told you so," Danika replied smugly.

"Frack you too," I told her.

"We are not children!" Bastila cried. "The two of you are Jedi Padawans now. You should learn to keep civil tongues in your heads!"

We both ignored her, filtering out her voice as she launched into a lecture like so much background noise.

The datapad wanted to shut down and disconnect from the terminal. I couldn't let it do that, because there was the risk that the terminal would dislike the datapad dong that and would wipe itself or scramble whatever data it carried; and that would be detrimental to further investigation.

So as things turned out I had to enter a constant stream of code to make sure the datapad and terminal synched with each other smoothly, all the while growling curses at both machines in a range of languages and filtering out Bastila's equally constant stream of protests. Danika threw in the occasional sarcastic comment or poked, prodded, or lightly smacked Bastila to try and get her to quiet down. I was done after about ten minutes, at which point I was impressed at the brunette Jedi's persistence. "Be quiet, Bazzy," I told her finally, my voice rough. "It's working, or at least putting up a semblance of working."

"Finally!" Bastila cried, looking both red in the face and immensely relieved. She shook her head and folded her arms. "What does it say?"

Danika leaned over my shoulder to look at the datapad, which had settled on a bloc of text in basic that took up about a quarter of the display screen. "Looks like a word puzzle," she said. She was fascinated, which was not surprising since she had a fondness for puzzles.

I on the other hand didn't. "Seems a little silly for a bunch of overlords to guard their secrets with a word puzzle," I said with disgust. "You get one smart slave and it's all over."

"Well to be fair they probably weren't using basic," Danika said. I only made a disgusted noise again and let her tap out a few commands on the datapad. The datapad hummed as it communicated with the terminal, and the terminal clicked. Behind us in the near distance was the sound of something releasing, like a lock.

"That's it?" Bastila asked, and when I glanced at her she looked like all the stuffing had been knocked out of her.

"Looks like it," Danika answered. I set about disengaging the datapad from the terminal, which thankfully when much more smoothly than getting them to communicate was. I saved the data to a separate file in the datapad in the hopes that it would help with the next terminal we hooked up to.

"Okay, let's get a move on," I said as I pulled the datapad off of its port and slipped it back into my tunic. "The sooner we get out of here the better."

"Agreed," Danika said. Bastila was mercifully silent.

As we emerged from the plain rectangular room the reception droid lifted itself up and watched us as we passed, but said nothing. I wrinkled my nose at the scent of rot in the room, yet another reason I wanted to get out of the ruins as soon as possible. Bastila approached the second door, unclipping her lightsaber from her belt as she approached. Danika and I also readied out weapons.

It was a disappointing anticlimax this time however. As the door opened there was no blaster fire and no tingles of impending danger from the Force. We quickly saw why, the droid residing in the room was trashed. Bastila lit her lightsaber as she walked into the room anyway, and Danika and I also kept our weapons at the ready.

This time I kicked the droid. It fell over, its poor rusted excuse for a body tumbling to the stone floor with a metallic squeal. "Shavit miracle tech," Danika said again, this time with utter disgust.

"You can say that again," I replied. "Personally I'm happier that we didn't have to fight this one." I shouldered my rifle and continued on towards the terminal. "Okay, little bugger," I muttered underneath my breath. "Come to mommy…" I carefully hooked in my datapad again, and once again both began to make aggravating noises. I implemented the package of data I'd saved from the other one, and while it helped I had to alter it to align it with the new terminal which seemed to have experienced a different rate of decay. Bastila made unhappy noises behind me, but I disposed with the profanity that time and so she was mostly silent.

"Great," I said when everything was aligned relatively happily. "It's another word puzzle." This time I stepped aside instead of letting Danika read over my shoulder. It was the polite thing to do since she was so much shorter and had to stand on the tips of her feet in order to do so. She eagerly grabbed the datapad and read over the puzzle. After a time she made an eager noise and tapped out a few commands, and as another lock-releasing sound ground against the rock in the near distance, she stepped aside to let me retrieve the datapad.

Bastila huffed. "That was entirely too easy," she said. She fiddled with her lightsaber, twirling it expertly in one hand.

"Quit fidgeting," I told her as I passed, putting a hand on her shoulder to help enforce my words. She obeyed almost instantaneously with a guilty look, which confused me and upset her. I felt the feeling flare through the bond and glanced at Danika, but her face was blank. If she had felt it, she was ignoring it.

As one the three of us approached the reception droid, and it settled itself below our collective head level with an odd note of deference. _"You have been proven worthy," _it said. "_You are welcome to the secrets of the Star Forge."_ At its words a grinding sounded, and we turned to see the final door begin to grind open. Beyond it was yet another antechamber.

"This should be interesting," Danika said. She left her heavy rifle where it was and unclipped her lightsaber from her belt instead as she stepped forward. My own fingers itched for my slugthrower, but as I settled them over the hilt of my blue-bladed lightsaber a feeling of familiarity washed over me like a wave of warm water. Suddenly I no longer cared about the rifle and wanted to take up my second lightsaber as well. I did so, barely realizing that I'd done it, or thinking about the fact that I might need a free hand if there was another terminal.

Bastila and I followed Danika through the door into the second antechamber. This one was dimly lit, which seemed to be more for effect than due to the systems having degraded, and even more intricately carved. Unlike the first antechamber, this one's carvings and reliefs carried hints of pictures. They still didn't give any clues as to the identity of the Builders, but they did hint at their arrogance. Intricate scenes worked into the abstract shapes detailed typical over-glorified interpretations of tyranny.

"I hope this is the last room," Bastila said, her voice wavering as we approached the only other door leading out of the second antechamber.

"It is," Danika said with certainty. There was a disturbing lack of emotional tone in her voice, and I felt concern from Bastila as my old friend opened the door. I tried to probe at Danika through the bond but only found a mirror of what I had heard in her voice. She was absolutely certain of what she was doing, and there was no room in her for anything else.

Lightsaber still in hand Danika opened the door with a smooth gesture of the hand which was used to focus the Force. She stayed where she was as it opened smoothly and revealed a vast room twice the size of the one where the reception droid resided. It was supported by sweeping, elaborate columns and once again the walls were covered in carvings and reliefs. These were even more complex than anything I'd seen before, so much so that it made my eyes hurt to try and sort it out. Intricate mosaics were pressed into the floor, each tile appeared to be made of stone in shades of grey and black. The entire surface had been made as smooth as if it was a single piece.

In the middle of the room, crouched there as if it was both throne and ruler, was a shape like an angular flower with its petals closed. It was made of black metal and the sight of it sent a soft, ominous tremor in the Force like a feather brushing over my skin. And like a feather, it raised goose bumps on my skin.

"Wait!" Bastila cried, desperate. "Revan and Malak may have laid traps to protect what they discovered." She seemed reluctant to go into the room, and I could imagine why. We all knew that walking into that room would change everything.

The only one who wasn't concerned, and who hadn't been for a little while now, was Danika. She spoke as she stepped forward, and in the same creepy tone as before. "There are no traps," she said.

Bastila made a strangled noise as Danika entered the room, which I found comical but quickly put aside to follow my old friend. Now that I knew there was no danger here I returned my lightsabers to my belt. Bastila followed me, distressed but silent.

Although Danika walked with a slow steady pace Bastila and I followed close on her heels. We were both worried about her, and we were both equally convinced that she might not be right about the traps.

Fortunately our fears were unfounded. No traps sprang to life, and the only thing in the room that moved was the construct in its middle, which opened as we closed in on it. The middle part unfolded into three arms, and when they reached a nearly horizontal position a ball was ejected from their middle. It began to spin and glow, quickly sketching the patterns of a hologram in the air.

The hologram was a little different than what I was used to viewing, but it was almost instantly recognizable as a map. Star coordinates flickered over points of light in a gently swirling galaxy. Although the actual hologram was only a rough approximation I knew exact hyperspace coordinates would be contained in its code. My fingers itched for my datapad as my eyes swept the structure for a dataport of some kind.

"This… this must be what Revan and Malak found," Bastila said softly as she took in the map. "This must be where their journey to the dark side began."

"Don't say that, Bastila," I said sternly. "And don't think it either. Falling to the dark side is no simple matter, there is never a clear line of where the fall started. No one can say 'it began here.'"

There was a pregnant pause and a hollow pain from Bastila in the bond. Finally, quietly, she spoke. "Yes," she whispered.

"Sab," Danika said. She sounded as if she were speaking from a deep well, or as if she was dreaming while she stood. "Can you hook the datapad up to that thing? It doesn't look complete, but there has to be something useful in there."

"Yeah, no problem," I said. "Hey Dani… are you okay?" There was no answer, and I bit my bottom lip gently in worry as I debated what to do. Bastila moved as if to check Danika but I waved her off. "Let's just get out of here as soon as possible," I told her gently.

She nodded, also worried. "Yes, we must tell the Council of what we've found."

I walked around the holoprojector looking for a port to hook the datapad in. I had to circle several times before I spotted something, and even then I had to make sure my back was facing Bastila and Danika so that I could adjust my eyes to see more clearly in the gloom. Pulling my datapad from my belt, I crouched down and hooked it up into the map. I had to refine the data package I'd saved from the terminals yet again, but it went even smoother this time. In the end, the data from the map wasn't really all that large. "Stang," I hissed. "A lot of this data's corrupted. It's indicating there are other maps on Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan, and… oh shavit Korriban. Isn't that a Sith world?"

"Yes it is," Bastila said. I eyed Danika, but she continued to watch the map without seeming to hear us. "I know Revan and Malak visited there at least once, perhaps they visited these other worlds as well."

Pursing my lips, I agreed with her. "Hopefully one of these will tell us what in the nine hells the Star Forge is."

"And give us its location, as well as a way to destroy it," Bastila added.

I grunted as I tapped away at the datapad to ensure I could disconnect from the map safely. "We should be so lucky," I said. Once I had the datapad safely stored again I went over and shook Danika. "Hey, we got what we came for Dani. Let's get going!"

Danika blinked and looked at me as if seeing me for the first time. She said nothing for a few long moments, so long that I fought the urge to shift nervously. "Leave," she said finally. She visibly collected herself. "Right. Let's go." Without another word, she turned on her heel and left the room. I shot Bastila a worried glance and saw my concern reflected in those sky blue eyes before following.

I wanted more than anything to ask Danika what was up, but if she was having one of those memory issues that we were trying to keep from the Jedi I couldn't say anything while Bastila was within hearing range. Bastila would want to report to the Jedi Council immediately, and then they'd probably want to talk to Danika and I as well as see the information I had stored on my datapad. All of this meant that a private moment would probably not come for a while, and that I'd more than likely have to move the booze again to ensure Danika wouldn't find it.

As the speeder raced back to the Enclave over Dantooine's landscape I let my head loll back so that I could watch the sky and sighed. It was going to be a long day.

To Be Continued…

7


	30. Chapter 30

Gone For Good Chapter 30; Clever

**Chapter 30**

**Clever**

Mission knew that something was up.

She didn't like being left out of the loop. Back on Taris, although it hurt to think of that now, she and Zaalbar had explored every inch of the Lower City, Undercity, the Undercity sewers, even a few parts of the Upper City. They had known people from all over the planet and knew pretty much everything that was going on there. Zaalbar usually couldn't have cared less, but Mission had loved it. And she knew, now, sitting on Dantooine with nothing but vast open spaces and an Enclave full of Jedi for companionship and entertainment, that something was bubbling underneath the surface.

Amazingly the cobbled together crew of the _Ebon Hawk_ was pretty closed-mouthed, and Mission only gleaned little bits of information here and there. She had started by trying to get a second peak at the information that Hestra had asked her to get out of the Matale estate, but all her sneaky stealthy skills combined couldn't get Hestra's datapad away from her. She kept an eye on it better than Sabine kept Danika's booze stash hidden. The veteran may not have been a computer expert, but she certainly knew how to transfer data from Mission's datapad to her own without leaving anything that Mission could hack behind. Mission had wanted to transfer the data herself just to make sure this didn't happen but Hestra had insisted, and although the teenage Twi'lek was used to getting her own wa pretty much all of the time she was continuously flabergasted by how Hestra, not to mention the other adults on the _Hawk_, kept getting her goat(substitute for another animal, possibly something from Ryloth, probably from Taris.)

Mission didn't consider Bastila an adult. Although she was a Jedi she was prissy and only a few eyars older than the teenage Twi'lek. Zaalbar was about the same age or maybe a little older, she'd never really found out, but he didn't count anyway. The lovable furball was always on her side. Sabine, despite her sometimes childish snese of humor, was most definitely an adult. She'd proven it when she'd forced Mission to take a shower, which no one had done since before her brother had left. Danika… Danika was also an adult in Mission's eyes, but she hadn't paid much attention to the youngest crew member since arriving on Dantooine. Mission supposed she was too busy trying to find the booze that Sabine had hidden from her.

Mission had seen alcoholics before. Danika was functioning remarkably well for how heavily she drank, but after Sabine had started hiding the booze she could see how determined Danika was to get it, and how frazzled she was at the end of every day she didn't find it. Every alcoholic had a different reason for drinking, not to mention how often and how hard, but Mission had yet to find Danika's. She didn't think she would any time soon either considering how busy she and Sabine were with Jedi stuff. There was always the possibility one of the other crew would know, but Sabine had known Danika the longest and Mission was pretty sure none of the others had known her long enough to have found out.

Reaching out a booted foot, Mission poked a part as Canderous worked on the swoop bike that had shared space in the _Hawk's _garage with the speeder bike. The Mandalorian made no move to indicate he'd noticed what she'd done, not even a single solitary muscle twitch or grunt. Although she was bored and irritated, Mission had to admit that was impressive. It seemed like Canderous was always working on something, first the speeder and now the swoop bike. He'd also spent a lot of time dissassembling and cleaning all his weapons, the entire impressive collection of which he'd somehow managed to bring with him. Although Mission knew her weapons reasonably well she hadn't recognized some of the models, and while they had been briefly interesting she was bored now.

For his part Canderous had come to enjoy the company. He had been surprised that he had become lonely when Sabine had made the decision that they should sleep in separate quarters on the _Hawk _instead of together under Dantooine's sky. Mission was most definitely not a replacement, and not terribly interested in most of the things that meant being _Mando'ad_, but she was relatively quiet company when she wasn't asking questions. And she was smart, he never found her asking a question that wasn't pointed or didn't show her intelligence. Some time and training would turn her into a formidable woman, and from what he had seen Sabine had attached to the young Twi'lek so she would get the training she needed. His Sabine had always been a good teacher and no amount of memory loss could take that away.

Mission gave a great, much put-upon sigh that was explosive in execution and rather impressive in its display of emotion. She got up, her head tails curled tightly around her neck with the tips twitching in an unhappy fashion. "I'm gonna go see if anybody's back," she said, and left.

Canderous didn't mind the silence, but he found himself missing Sabine again. In response to the emotion he picked up another part and scrubbed it vigorously with a rag.

At the time Mission was sitting in the garage watching Canderous give the swoop bike a tune-up it more than likely didn't really need, Zaalbar was feasting on an excellent dinner provided by the Jedi Enclave. It was a little early for dinner and a little late for lunch but there were several Jedi in attendance in the mess hall. They were primarily Padawans with one Knight as an exception. The Padawans were absolutely stunned by the Wookie's ability to consume an exuberant amount of food and were watching in horrified fascination, whereas the Knight was simply amused by the Padawans. He had seen a Wookie or two before in his experience of the galaxy, not to mention many species whose appetites seemed ridiculous to humanoid species. He was used to the sight unfolding at Zaalbar's table.

Zaalbar was fairly used to stares in this particular manner and was simply thankful Mission wasn't there causing trouble he needed to fix. That would have put a serious dent in his personal mission to sample every dish the Jedi cook was serving at the moment, and perhaps a few he could convince the cook to make especially for him.

The young Wookie was almost through his first course when Juhani entered the mess hall. Ever since she had returned from her brief fall to the dark side she had found herself treated with an odd conflict of emotions and reactions by her fellow Jedi. Many were happy to have her back and grateful that she had been returned to the light, however there was a distance there as well. It was as if she were a nerf that had suddenly sat up on its hind legs and talked.

Juhani's solution was a simple one, she sought solitude and meditation at every opportunity. She dedicated herself to studying the Jedi arts once more, and sought solace in her friend Belaya. Her fellow Padawan was the only Jedi in the Enclave that didn't either ignore her completely or act strangely. There was of course the danger of a closer attachment forming between them, but that had always been present. Juhani was uncertain if they would continue to dance around it or seek a solution, but she knew that something would need to be done soon. Her fall to the dark side had shown her its dangers, and although she was uncertain a relationship with Belaya would cause her to fall again she knew that the tension of it staying unresolved could be just as deadly.

As Juhani collected her plate of food and proceeded to a table all thoughts of Belaya left her mind. She stopped dead in her tracks and watched as Zaalbar consumed his food with gusto and quiet excamations from the Padawans who were also watching. She considered and discarded several courses of action before moving again.

Zaalbar did not hesitate or pause as the cathar Padawan sat across from him at the table he was occupying. Juhani did not speak to him; instead she merely began eating her own meal, albeit with a delicacy that the young Wookie was forgoing altogether. A rustle of murmurs was enticed from the table of Padawans by the move like a hive of disturbed insects. The noise was quickly silenced by the Knight, who chastised the Padawans and launched into a lecture of how Jedi were above petty gossiping. Juhani, who's back was turned to the group, let her nose twitch in distaste.

"_Are you going to eat that?"_ Zaalbar asked Juhani as he eyed a muffin on her plate. She considered denying him, but she was not particularly hungry, and besides the young wookie was staring at the little muffin as if it was the most precious thing in the world. She handed it over to him and smiled as he exclaimed his thanks.

"How long will you be staying here at the Enclave?" Juhani asked quietly. She did not particularly want to have her conversation overshadowed by the Padawans at the other table, but she knew very well that such a desire would likely go unfulfilled.

Zaalbar understood Juhani's reluctance and hesitated before answering her. The Knight, who had just finished his lecture, launched straight into scolding the Padawans for loitering. In response they reluctantly rose from their seats and dispersed. Much satisfied with himself, the Knight did the same.

He could have waited for everyone to leave of course, but Zaalbar didn't like wasting time when it came to food. Juhani picked at her own plate as the group of Padawans and the Knight left. Finally, Zaalbar swallowed a large chunk of food and spoke. "_I don't know,"_ he said. _"The Jedi Council has been keeping Sabine and Danika busy." _

"Why do you stay with them?" Juhani asked. "Surely you could leave on another ship if you wished."

"_I have sworn a lifedebt to Danika,"_ Zaalbar answered, his demeanor unusually serious. _"I go where she goes. Her cause is mine."_

Juhani raised both her eyebrows in surprise, though in truth it made sense. Although she didn't know the exact circumstances where the lifedebt had come into play she did know that Danika was a very charismatic woman. She had felt that in the grove when she had been returned to the living Force. "And the little Twi'lek," she said. "She is also your companion?" Juhani had met Mission once or twice at the Enclave. She had found the little Twi'lek was mischievous and relentlessly curious.

Zaalbar nodded enthusiastically. "_She's a very good friend," _he said. "_We take care of each other." _

Juhani had to smile at that, because it was sentiment she understood well. She had come to the Enclave late in her life, and had been largely excluded from the social life of the other young Jedi. Only Belaya had stepped forward and become a true friend, and they had determined to take care of each other as well.

Although, Juhani reflected as she sipped a cup of tea, likely not in the same way Zaalbar and Mission cared for each other.

Timon and Vance fidgeted under the stern gaze of their father, who had been found in the estates large warehouse. He was shorter than Carth by a few inches, and it was clear that the twins had taken after their mother since they bore little resemblance to him. He himself resembled Sabine around the nose and the eyebrows, which were a rich brown. His eyes were the pale wood beneath blba tree bark, and were currently rebuking his sons.

"Sorry da," Timon muttered. Their father, Tage, sighed.

"Well there's no real harm in it I suppose," he said, and rubbed his face as if he was used to this sort of behavior. He looked over his daughter sitting in Carth's arms and reaching up to touch the veteran's beard. "I see Seble's taken a liking to you. Well, I'm sorry to say Ahlan's not here right now. He's meeting one of his suppliers up at Khoonda."

Carth nodded, careful not to get one of Seble's fingers up his nose. Khoonda was a communal building used from everything for festivals to a meeting place for the farmers to discuss business. Because few things were wasted on Dantooine it was kept in good use by being the marker for the market. Some stalls were inside the building, but most chose to put up their businesses around the building under the open sky. It had its own landing pad behind it for ships that wouldn't or couldn't land at the Jedi Enclave. The _Ebon Hawk _was a small freighter and didn't have a problem landing on one of the small pads but a larger cargo ship might have trouble. It made sense that Ahlan would meet someone delivering goods to him there.

"Oh tha's alrigh'," Hestra said, and although she was relatively calm Carth had spent enough time with her in the confines of the _Hawk_, as well as working with her on Taris that he could easily pick up on her excitement. Seble seemed to catch on to her mood as well and bounced in Carth's arms again.

Tage smiled at the old veteran. "I'd be glad to answer any questions you have. I help run things around here."

Hestra hesitated before replying, making it clear that she was regretful to bring up the subject. "Well actually," she said, her accent perfect, "I wanted to ask you about your sister."

Tage's face tightened immediately, his eyes turning hard. "Timon, Vance," he said. "Take your sister and see if your mom needs any help with dinner." The two boys did as asked readily, eager to get out from their father's scrutiny. Seble practically jumped into Vance's arms, looking over at Hestra with serious eyes. She stuck her thumb in her mouth and continued to observe the strangers over her brother's shoulder as he carried her from the garage. When his children were gone, Tage regarded Carth and Hestra in silence for a few moments before speaking. "How do you know Seble?"

Moss green eyes met Carth's brown ones in a look that said she was reluctant to widen the pool of people who knew about Sabine, but that this was what she was truly here for. The only reason she and Carth were investigating the disappearance of her nephew was to make sure that his father didn't oust Sabine and get her into trouble. Carth didn't want to make that decision for her, she'd been the one to get herself into this mess in the first place. That wasn't to say he wouldn't have been willing to do the same for Sabine in her place, but he'd have felt better if he didn't have to deal with the Jedi. They made him nervous because there was no way to really tell what they were capable of. If he hadn't served with Sabine and Danika on the _Endar Spire, _if together they hadn't been the last survivors of that ship, if it didn't involve Danika as well… well he wouldn't have helped in the first place.

Hestra didn't know Carth's whole thought process but she could imagine his reluctance to get involved and didn't sit there to wait for a response from them. She turned back to Tage, her face grim. "She and I served together for a very short time with the military," she said.

Tage's eyes lit up slowly, hoping but unsure of how far to let it go. "I knew it," he said softly, "she's still alive."

Carth felt a little sick hearing that, because he knew what it was like to want someone you loved to still be alive when all evidence pointed out that they were most likely not. He stepped in. "It's complicated," he said. "She's here, but you can't see her. We're trying to keep her out of trouble."

Eyes brimming over with tears that didn't quite spill down his face, Tage nodded. "It was always something. We never told the Jedi she came to visit us, even when she was little. That was the rule; don't tell the Jedi and keep little sis out of trouble. I understand. Just please, tell me she's still alive."

As Hestra took from one of her pockets the same holoprojector she'd shown Ahlan Carth put his hands in the pockets of his jacket. He hurt inside for the look on Tage's face and felt ashamed that he had stopped looking, even though it had been pointless to continue. Tage accepted the hollow with hands that looked like they wanted to shake.

"Come on Hestra, there are pazzak dens here!" Danika snapped irritably, easily recognizable even though the holo was not a large one.

"And booze," Sabine said, laughing. Carth could count on one hand the number of times he had seen her happy since he had known her. "What she really means is that where there's pazzak there's booze."

Danika danced agilely around Hestra to attempt to smack her much taller friend, clearly aggravated. Sabine laughed and danced out of the holo's range, gleeful to be chased. The miniature holographic Hestra shook her head and gestured to the person recording the holo to turn it off. Tage quickly shut down the projector and stared at it held in his hands. Carth knew what he was thinking, that it was much too small and simple to contain something so precious.

Tage handed the holoprojector back to Hestra, his movements jerky and his throat working visibly as he swallowed. "Thank you," he whispered, his voice rough. "I was-" he cleared his throat, unable to talk for a moment. "No-one believed me."

"We're doing our best to make sure she'll be okay," Carth said. "I don't know… we don't know what exactly is going on but we'll make sure you get to see her again at least once." Hestra shifted next to him with a huff of quiet disapproval. Soldiers didn't make promises they weren't sure they could keep. But she didn't voice her opinion, he didn't need it and Tage didn't need it even more.

"You're here about Shen," Tage said, and the look on his face made it clear he didn't want to talk about his sister any longer."

Hestra nodded. "That we are. We've come to a… bit of an impasse." She rocked back on her heels and hooked her thumbs into her belt. "Janeth Sandral said her son is missing, and hinting that she thinks Ahlan has him."

Tage shook his head. "If he did I'd know about it. Timon and Vance explore this estate top to bottom almost every day. My wife and I take turns handling the security. Between all of us we'd know if Ahlan had taken Casus."

"He could be keeping him somewhere else," Carth suggested. Tage shook his head and chuckled.

"Not a chance," Tage said. "Trust me, I know all the buildings Ahlan has access to and I don't exactly keep track of his movements but I know where he goes nontheless. It's a sparsely populated planet, there'd be few places he could stash a young man for any length of time; and none where I wouldn't notice."

Carth closed his eyes briefly, but it was Hestra who spoke. "Well then," she said in a false cheerful tone. "Pardon my language but we're a little fracked."

"I'll have to take your word for it," Tage said almost lightly. His face was grim.

Carth sighed. "It really would have been easier if Ahlan did have Casus," he groaned. Both Tage and Hestra nodded in agreement.

"Time to do things the hard way," Hestra said. "This is why I never wanted to be a politician." The sentiment was echoed by the two men heartily.

Before he could stop himself Carth imagined Tage and Sabine being reunited, and it was followed shortly by the old image; the one where he saw his son again, alive and whole. He felt sick again and hung his head for just a moment. With an internal sigh he set it aside, as he had been doing for some years now. There were things to do and people he actually had a chance to help, and he wasn't about to let himself fail again.

To Be Continued…

6


	31. Chapter 31

Gone For Good Chapter 31; Epoch

**Chapter 31**

**Epoch**

Danika could not shake the feeling that she had been to the ruins before. In addition there was a feeling of something left undone, the feeling that drove her to drink so much so often, was stronger than ever. And in the Force, trembling as delicately as a strand of spider silk, was the sense that something incredibly important was about to begin. Part of her sighed in relief and strained to be off and about her business, this had been too long in the making already. The rest of her was wary and wanted to know the full picture of the events that were unfolding. She wanted to pry up every single rock on Dantooine until she had answers and the full story was there before her to view at her leisure.

But things were rarely that simple, she knew this from her experience as a smuggler. There were always consequences for acquiring information directly, which meant in the smuggling world that blood was shed and beings died. Although the Jedi were in no way, shape, or form, smugglers the rule still held the same. From the dance the Jedi Council and Bastila were playing Danika knew that the consequences for this information would be something she didn't want to imagine.

Although she was containing herself, neither allowing her emotions to be projected through the bond nor projecting anything through the Force, Sabine reached to the back seat of the speeder and squeezed Danika's shoulder. She looked her friend in the eye for a few moments and once again reassured Danika that they were doing the best that they could. In the pilot's seat Bastila frowned and projected her annoyance and upset in the Force at being left out of the loop, at which Danika couldn't help but crack a smile.

Same bar she thought, just different patrons. She had played this game many times as a smuggler and she was good at it. Bastila and the Jedi Council didn't stand a chance.

Danika seemed to have shaken her strange mood by the time Bastila set down the speeder at the Jedi Enclave. She clambered out of the open-topped transport with her usual gusto, her face set into a slightly grim mask. As she waited for Bastila and me to get out she straightened her clothing, which was a mix of the Jedi robes we had been given and her old gear. I was wearing much the same, the leather racing trousers and an armor-weave shirt beneath the Jedi tunic along with the rest of my usual gear.

"Should we stash some of our gear before we meet with the Council…?" I asked Bastila, leaving the sentence open-ended. I was hesitant to walk into the Council chambers armed to the teeth.

Danika raised an eyebrow and used the toe of one of her boots to scratch behind the opposite leg, her balance never wavering. Bastila pursed her lips and shook her head. "No," she said. "We need to speak with them right away."

I shifted my rifle on my shoulder and made sure my clothing and gear were straight, a nervous gesture. "Alright," I said.

Bastila nodded and walked past me, her eyes downcast and slightly flushed as she did. I reached up and ran a hand over my hair, running a finger through my bangs to make sure I was presentable. I just didn't understand Bastila's strange behavior around me, although it definitely came in handy when she was in full Jedi Zealot mode. There was a good chance that I would never understand it.

I followed Bastila as she walked to the Council chambers and on the way we ran into Dorak. He was carrying several holobooks and proceeded down the hall with a pronounced limp that caught my eye. Surely I'd seen him limping around the Enclave before that moment but I must have always given him a passing glance.

This time I did notice, and things seemed to slow down for a moment around me. I saw the loose tile in front of Dorak and I knew that he would trip. My throat closed up in sudden fear for him and I rushed forward, time speeding up again as I seized Dorak's arm. I had reached him just as his toe had reached the tile and he looked up at me startled. "Oh dear," he said. "I must have been more distracted that I thought!"

"I-I'm sorry," I said, letting him go and backing up as if he were on fire. I _knew_ him, the feeling flushing through me like a heat rush. Somewhere, sometime in my past Dorak and I had been very close. I remembered when he had given me reassurance through the Force during one of the first meetings Danika and I had had with the Council; and I remembered that Danika and I had spoken of ours suspicion that he must have known me after the meeting. I now had tangible confirmation of that.

Dorak must have picked up some of my distress because he reached out and caught my wrist in a light grip, meant to prevent me from taking off but not meant to brace against a struggle. "No, it's alright," he said. "I am not the young man I once was, I could have fallen. Thank you." Once again there was compassion and warmth in his eyes. Once again he projected reassurance and calm at me in the Force.

I was still very upset, but I managed to get myself together enough that it didn't show. I could tell by the look in his eyes that Dorak knew better. "You're welcome Master Dorak," I said, my voice steady. "I'm more than happy to help." I had to force myself to add his name, I had wanted to badly to simply call him _master. _It felt personal and familiar, and natural but I knew it wasn't an appropriate moniker to use at this point.

Bastila had felt most of the exchange through the bond and scrambled to add her two bits in. As she hastily explained that we needed to see the Council right away Danika placed a warm hand on my shoulder. She didn't need to say or project anything through the bond to reassure me. We had known each other long enough that we could communicate through such small gestures.

"Here, we can go to the Council chambers and wait there while I call the other masters together," Dorak said as he rested a hand on Bastila's arm in a fatherly manner. "If I recall correctly none of them is doing anything that can't wait until after this meeting."

"Of course! We would not want to disturb them," Bastila replied. Though she was still agitated and fought the urge to glance at me she was beginning to relax. I had to rein myself in as the urge to take over and comfort her myself kicked in.

I let Danika trail ahead of me as we continued to the Council chambers. Normally she would have been reluctant to do so but she let me fall behind without even a twitch that time. She seemed to understand that I wanted some distance between me and Bastila and Dorak, no matter how little the distance was.

It didn't take long for all the masters to assemble, the Enclave wasn't terribly large after all, and as we waited for them I concentrated on keeping myself quiet and calm. I found myself slipping into a light meditation almost without thinking.

Funny, I thought as Vrook walked in and completed the meeting, I hadn't meditated until I'd come to Dantooine.

The thought was brushed aside as Vrook cleared his throat and looked around expectantly. Vandar gave him a steady look and answered the question the other Master had not voiced. "Returned from their investigations, Bastila, Danika, and Sabine have," he said. "Wish to report their findings, they do."

Vrook huffed, looking as grumpy as ever. "It's about time!" He grumbled.

The other Council members said nothing and it seemed highly likely that they were used to this sort of behavior at this point. Bastila, who was as nervous as a nerf alone in a room full of kath hounds, took it as her cue to speak. "First and foremost… Nemo is dead," she said. "We destroyed the guardians in the ruins so it is safe to retrieve his body."

"This is unfortunate," Zhar replied. "But your diligence is appreciated. We will send someone to take care of the remains the moment this meeting is over."

"Thank you," Bastila answered solemnly, her body language subdued. "But I fear this is the least disturbing of the news we bring." She took a deep breath in preparation for what looked like a long flowery speech.

Danika wasn't in the mood for any of it. I felt a flicker of her decision through the bond before she spoke. "Basically some ancient race that existed about twenty thousand years ago constructed something called the Star Forge," she started out, her tone entirely too cheerful. "The droid that talked about them was vague as to exactly who and what they were, but it seemed to think the Star Forge was something really special. There was a map leading to it, but it was pretty corrupted. It seemed to indicate there were maps on other worlds though."

I felt Bastila seize up as Danika spoke and felt her frustrated struggle not to speak up. I risked a single glance at her and saw her eye twitch and that her body posture was almost rigid with politeness. She cleared her throat, using the move to struggle for composure. "There is no guarantee that the ruins are actually twenty thousand years old…"

"The droid seemed pretty confident," Danika replied cheerfully. I could imagine the smirk underneath her blank pazzak face.

I thought about my options briefly and decided to speak up. "I had a good look at a similar droid's insides," I said. "Everything was pretty patched together but it seemed solid. I don't see any reason that the chronological circuitry would degrade enough to throw off its calculations by say…" I did some quick math in my head, "…one or two thousand years?"

"This is alarming news indeed," Zhar said, his expression grim. He looked between all of us. "But you are certain?"

Reluctantly, Bastila nodded. "Yes," she said. Danika and I agreed.

Vrook shook his head. "I find this hard to believe," he said. "It sounds ridiculous!"

"Not so ridiculous when it could be the key to defeating Malak," Bastila said quietly, her aura in the Force very subdued. Vrook shifted and folded his arms, sighing as he studied her. Finally, he nodded.

"On what worlds, these other maps are?" Vandar asked, his entire demeanor kind.

Bastila faltered as she tried to speak and looked to Danika and me. Danika made it clear through the bond that she had had her turn to speak, and so it fell to me to answer Vandar's question. "Kasyyk, Manaan, Tatooine, and… Korriban." I could help but hesitate over the last word. I barely knew anything about the Sith word and it gave me shivers and goose bumps to say the name. I couldn't imagine actually going there or staying for any length of time.

The Council members shared a solemn look and I could feel their auras shift in the Force as their emotions played out. They shifted in place and nodded, conversing with each other in a manner only old friends and lovers could. I didn't know them well enough to understand what they said, but fortunately I didn't have to. Vandar drew himself up to his full diminutive height. "Regrettable it is that place upon your shoulders this responsibility we must," he said, "however rests the fate of the galaxy does in this. Go to the other planets you must, and compete the map. And discover the nature of the Star Forge in doing so." As the little Master spoke Vrook stayed stock still and looked as if he'd eaten something sour. I picked up a sense of unsettled resignation from him, but I couldn't pinpoint exactly why.

Danika folded her arms but I could see and feel that she was itching to place her hand over her pistol in a wary gesture. "Who are we allowed to take this time?" she asked. Though her voice was neutral I could tell that she was eager to get off Dantooine.

Vrook's face darkened but he said nothing. Dorak, who had been silent for the entire meeting, made a sweeping gesture without making it pretentious. "This is your mission," he said. "You are to carry it out as you see fit. Bastila will be going with you to provide further training in the ways of the Jedi."

"We'll need some supplies, and we're low on funds," I said as Danika stared into the middle distance in contemplation. I could sense her calculating through the bond, thinking through all the possibilities. On her other side Bastila shifted nervously, sensing the same thing that I was but understanding only parts of it.

"Everything you need is yours," Dorak answered, and he met my eyes solid. I shivered and closed down the bond on my end tight as an overwhelming feeling of trust washed over me. He was so familiar.

"Thank you," Danika said. She bowed and turned to leave. Bastila and I hastily followed her example.

It felt good to get out of the peacefully decorated halls. I walked faster than Danika and Bastila in order to get out of the halls before them. The fresh air felt good. "I guess we have to tell everybody now," I said, pausing in one of the Enclave's courtyards.

"Yup," Danika said. "We finally get to leave this grassy rock ball."

"I take offense at that!" Bastila declared indignantly. Neither Danika nor I answered, but my old friend chuckled.

She was eager to leave. And frankly, so was I.

"The Sandral family would like to inform you that you are not welcome on this property," the flying droid said. "If you do not comply deadly force has been authorized."

Hestra saw a muscle twitch in Carth's jaw as he put the speeder into reverse and flew it a short way from the perimeter presented by the flying droids. He sighed and rubbed his face in a tired manner. "I was afraid of this," he said.

"So w's I," Hestra replied. "We're gonna hav'ta fin' a way t' git in there an' get Shen out." She didn't like the prospect at all. However she knew she couldn't leave Shen with Janeth. She had been all but openly hostile when they had spoken with her. There was no way to tell what she was capable of doing to the son of the man she held so much resentment for. Hestra could imagine one or two things though and none of them were pleasant.

"I know," Carth said. "If only we could find out what happened to Casus. We might be able to reason with her."

"No' if he's dead," Hestra said grimly. "If he's dead she migh' kill Shen outta spite."

Carth looked sick at the idea though Hestra knew he had to have realized that it was within the realm of possibilities in this situation. He was about to reply when they both heard the sound of footsteps. Both soldiers reached for their weapons, suddenly alert.

Whoever it was obviously didn't have much experience in being silent because Hestra and Carth were able to zero in on his or her location fairly easily. They took aim at the spot and crouched down in the speeder for what little cover it could provide. Hestra climbed into the back seat in order to give Carth a clear shot.

They both tensed as a figure appeared from behind a low hill. It was a young girl with dark skin and hair twisted into a complex braid. She looked about seventeen or eighteen years old and bore enough of a resemblance to Janeth Sandral that it was obvious she must have been the woman's daughter. She was also unarmed, and as Carth and Hestra recognized that they relaxed and got out of the speeder to meet her.

"Hello!" she called, jogging to close the last of the distance between them. "Oh I'm so happy you didn't leave right away! I don't know how I would have caught up to you."

"Best git t' explainin' girl," Hestra said sternly. She folded her arms as she stared the girl down.

Janeth's daughter rocked back on her heels at Hestra's stare and Carth's grim look. It was obvious she wasn't used to being treated with anything harsher than polite deference. Her soft brown eyes widened and she swallowed visibly before speaking again. "I saw the security recordings from the last time you were here, when you spoke with my mother," she said. "You're looking for Shen?"

"Yes we are," Carth replied. "We want to get the current situation between your mother and Ahlan Matale resolved without bloodshed if we can."

The girl nodded grimly. "I'm Janeth's daughter, Rahasia. I can help you, but you have to find out what happened to Casus!" She looked very worried as she spoke and wrung her hands together.

Carth and Hestra shared a sarcastic look before turning back to Rahasia. "We've ex'austed 'r leads," Hestra said. "Unless you c'n tell us somethin' more abou' 'im th'n yer m'ther did, we're stuck dead in th' wat'r on tha'."

Rahasia blinked at Hestra as she sorted out what the older woman had said. "Oh, yes of course," she said. She looked back and forth from them nervously. "Can the two of your keep a secret?" Once again the two soldiers shared a significant look, they didn't like the sound of those words at all, but they reassured Rahasia they could. "Shen and I met at the market a few months back," she said, shifting her feet and fidgeting as she spoke. "And well… we liked each other. We knew who each other was of course, and that our parents would be very mad if they knew, so when we started seeing each other we kept things secret.

"Casus would help cover for our mother and in exchange I would cover for him when he went out doing his archaeological stuff. She doesn't really approve since he's supposed to help her manage stuff at our farm. We grow a lot of really expensive crops! But anyway I thought it was a fair deal. And then Shen asked Casus to look into those weird ruins east of the Jedi Enclave. He wouldn't tell me why but I know he must have told Casus. He wouldn't go otherwise since it's really dangerous in that area because of the kath hounds and the voritor lizards. He came back every day… but a few days or so he didn't. I thought he must have put up with someone nearby, he'll do that every once in a while. But he didn't come home the next day either, and the day after that I ran out of excuses to give to mom."

Rahasia paused and looked even more upset and worried than she had before. Her soft brown eyes got wide with pleading. "Shen came by looking for Casus. He was trying to be quiet, and he was doing really well but mom caught him. She's locked him in the house and been pacing around ever since. I'm really worried she's going to do something to him. Please, help us!" Tears welled up in her eyes and her lip trembled.

Carth stepped up to Rahasia and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We will, don't worry," he said gently. "We'll find Casus."

"Thank you so much!" the girl cried. She threw her arms around Carth and while he was a bit startled he managed to return the gesture. He reassured her until she ended the embrace, thanked them again, and then disappeared the same way she'd come.

Hestra walked up beside Carth, but didn't touch him. She couldn't look at him long before turning away, since she could see the old pain clearly on his face and understood it well. She didn't want to be reminded of it. "We're pro'ly no' gonna find 'im alive," she said, and said it as gently as she could.

"I know," Carth replied. "We'll probably still have to break Shen out of there." He sighed and rubbed his face again. "I'm definitely not looking forward to that. Or tracking Shen. I'm not very good at tracking."

Hestra nodded. "I'm decen'," she replied. "Bu' I know som'n who c'n do bett'r. Let's git outta here."

Carth agreed heartily, though he was uncertain of to whom Hestra was referring, and climbed back into the speeder. Hestra settled next to him in the passenger's side seat. "Where are we headed to now?" he asked.

"Th' Enclave," Hestra replied. "We're trackin' down Sabine. On th' way I've g't somethin' else t' tell ye abou' her."

Carth flinched. "Oh great. Now what?" he sounded irritated.

Hestra made a soft noise and shifted in her seat. "Plays righ' into yer paranoia," she said. "Apparen'ly Sabine's a shape-shifter."

"You're joking with me right?" Carth asked, glancing at her as he piloted the speeder for confirmation. "Please tell me you're joking."

"Nope," Hestra answered. " 'Fraid no'."

Carth groaned and resisted closing his eyes in frustration. As if being a Jedi with memory loss and involved in a mysterious plot by the Jedi Council wasn't enough. Hestra chuckled at his reaction and patted him on the back. "If i's any cons'lat'n, she's jus' as frustra'ed as you," she said.

"Oh I'll just bet," Carth snorted. He gave the terrain before them a deep frown and pressed the speeder's control's for a touch more speed. He wanted to get this over as soon as possible.

To Be Continued…

8


	32. Chapter 32

Gone For Good Chapter 32; Integral

**Chapter 32**

**Integral**

Carth observed Sabine with a critical and wary eye as he and Hestra approached her. She was haggling with a Toydarian over a bag of fruit, working it as well as any fighter pilot worked an enemy squadron. She made a gesture to them as they approached; a signal that she had seen them and didn't want to be disturbed. He wondered if she had sensed them through the Force or used one of her non-human senses. It made him nervous that he couldn't make an educated guess.

When she was done Sabine tossed each of them a fruit and both soldiers caught them easily. Carth examined the muja in his hand carefully, wondering how he should treat the blond smuggler now. He remembered speaking with Danika about her on Taris when she had been laying in the operating room, wondering why a handful of survivors should mean so much.

Sabine cocked her head at him and studied him and once again he wondered what senses she was using to perceive him. "Are you okay, Carth?" she asked.

He immediately glanced nervously around at the amount of traffic in the market. Sabine picked up on it quickly and handed them a few bags filled with various foodstuffs before leading them to her speeder. From the looks of it she'd borrowed it from the Jedi Enclave and she seemed comfortable as she leaned against the pilot's door. "Okay," she said expectantly. "We're alone."

Hestra said nothing, leaving Carth to answer. "Hestra told me," he said, keeping his gaze steady on her.

Sabine's eyebrows arched up in surprise. She looked over at Hestra for confirmation and the veteran nodded. "Why?" was all she said.

"We need ye t' track som'n fer us," Hestra said. "Tryin' to keep it quiet."

Golden blond hair stirred in a soft breeze as Sabine nodded. "Well I can definitely do that. I have to get this stuff back to the _Hawk _first. The Council's given Danika and me a mission and we're leaving in the next few days."

"The Council gave you a mission?" Carth asked. "I thought the two of you were just Padawans."

"We are," Sainbe replied. "They're sending Bastila and Juhani with us as backup. Bastila is supposed to give us 'additional instruction.'" She made a disgusted face, not only for having to deal with the prissy, prickly teenager but at the situation.

Hestra shook her head. "G'd t' be leavin'," she said. "Odd as i' is."

Carth sighed. "It sounds like a mixed blessing to me," he said.

Sabine nodded, plucking a krenge fruit from a bag, peeling it, and biting into it. "Oh I'm sure it'll be all sorts of trouble. So when do you want to go tracking?" she asked.

"Soon 'as poss'ble," Hestra answered. "'Specially since we're head'd off-world soon."

"Well alright, then," Sabine replied. "We can get to it as soon as I get this stuff back to the _Hawk._" Hestra and Carth agreed, and they split up so that the two soldiers could collect their speeder.

As he and Hestra walked off Sabine gave him a solemn look and a nod. He had seen that same look in her eyes every time she had told him of what had gone on with the Jedi Council. It was a look that said, 'isn't life just a shchutta? Well you're not the only one who thinks so. Welcome to the club.'

Surprisingly, it made him feel much better.

Things had changed so much in such a short time that it made me sigh. I was happy to be leaving Dantooine, and I had finally gotten some time to go off into the fields of Dantooine and practice my shape-shifting, but I was not happy about Carth being let in on my secret. Hestra had told me that I would have to oust myself to the rest of the _Hawk's_ crew eventually, and I did agree with her. However I didn't have to like it. I wanted to keep everything I knew as close to my chest as possible until I knew exactly what was going on.

After Danika and I had split up to collect supplies, and we had managed to slip Bastila, I had gone into the wide, rolling grassy fields of Dantooine. I had shut my end of the bond down as tightly as I could and done what came naturally.

Even though I couldn't remember shape-shifting in the past, I knew how to do it. I had spent several hours racing on four legs or more, depending on the shape. My goal had been to get more comfortable with it, and I had achieved that in spades. Once I had gotten past the thrill I'd spent time practicing a few specific forms for future use, and one of these was about to come into play a lot sooner than I had thought it would.

I drove my Enclave-borrowed speeder to the _Hawk,_ not waiting for Hestra and Carth to catch up. We all knew where we were headed. As I drove I went over the akk dog that I had practiced. I would not only have to look like an akk dog, but I would have to play the part as well in case anyone came upon Carth, Hestra, and I while I was in the midst of tracking.

My speeder settles quietly by the _Hawk_ and its speeder, which Carth and Hestra were standing buy. I smiled at Hestra's raised eyebrows as I stepped out of the pilot's seat. Though I had stayed away from trying a form with the ability to fly I knew it was a possibility, and after I had returned to the Enclave to reluctantly retrieve a speeder I found myself much more comfortable than I had been before about piloting aircraft.

"Ye seem ina g'd mood t'day," Hestra commented lightly. I knew she was fishing for information as one friend trying to discover the cause of a change in another.

"I am," I told her as I handed her a bag of foodstuffs. "It's a beautifully day."

Carth looked at me as if I'd just grown a second head, which for all I knew was entirely possible for me to do. I laughed. "Uh… are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine!" I passed him a few bags as well before collecting the last ones myself. I led the way up the _Hawk's _boarding ramp. "Things are finally starting to look up!"

Carth and Hestra helped me secure the foodstuffs I'd bought, during which time I whistled merrily to myself. When we were done Carth was still giving me a look that said perhaps I wasn't totally sane, though Hestra had gotten down to the point where she was ignoring me. "C'n we head ou' now?" she asked.

"Sure," I answered. "Do either of you know basic commands for a tracking animal? No? Okay well then let's go over a few before we take off. I don't want anyone catching us with our pants down out there."

No one looked particularly enthused, but both Carth and Hestra agreed to my reasoning.

I hid in the back of the _Hawk's_ speeder until we were well out into the fields of Dantooine. Since there was little cover Carth and Hestra kept keen eyes on the horizon as I shape-shifted. I had to take off my equipment belt and my weapons in order to do so, just to make sure they didn't disappear or anything. I'd found earlier that clothing translated over with no problems, though I'd never tested my other equipment. All of it would be difficult to replace if it was lost when I shape-shifted. Carth watched as I shifted and the look on his face was priceless. He wasn't sure what to think, from the look of it.

And to be honest, I wasn't either.

I shook my body. Though I was comfortable with the form I had taken, a small very furry canine used by the Dantooine locals, I still found it strange. I stretched a few times before Hestra produced a small bit of cloth. She held it out for me and I trotted to her to sniff it. It smelled like a human, male, and fairly young. It smelled… familiar.

I put that thought aside and got the scent firmly in my nose. If Hestra wasn't telling me everything then she had a good reason, and I had no good reasons to badger her about it. Perhaps once we had gotten off Dantooine; for now, we were too close to the Dantooine Jedi Council for me to feel comfortable about discussing anything of a sensitive nature.

I cast about for a matching scent in the grass, and found it difficult. But after about fifteen minutes or so, when I could hear Carth sighing as if it was time to give up, I found it. It was faint, having been laid down a few days before I'd gotten there, but it was just enough to track. I woofed at Hestra and Carth who loaded into the speeder to follow me as I began trotting off after the scent.

It was maddening to follow because the trail was so faint, and so it took what felt like most of the day to track it to its source. In reality it was only about five hours, if Dantooine's sun was anything to go by. The scent doubled back and overlapped several times, indicating the man to whom it belonged had thoroughly explored this area. There were places where it stopped as well, and in those there were curious rocks jutting from the earth. Some were black, but most were the soft brown of local stone. They looked like they might have been formed by a sentient hand at some point, but it had weathered to only a faint suggestion of shape.

Eventually the scent led to a speeder. The speeder was an open-air one, the most common type used on Dantooine, and it was stashed in a low hollow under one of the blba trees. It wouldn't be easily noticed from the air. It smelled strongly of the young man, and it bothered me even more than it had when Hestra had let me sniff the piece of cloth to get the scent. There was some piece of information in the layers of information within the smell that I was missing.

At any rate I couldn't take the time to sort it out, not with Hestra and Carth waiting for me to track the kid down. So I cast about the grass around the speeder to take up the trail again.

It didn't go very far this time.

Under a trio of blba trees the scent ended, and I knew that you wouldn't need a nose as sensitive as mine to know what had happened to the young man. I stood back as far as I could so the smell wouldn't bother me too much.

My ears turned back to the sound of Hestra and Carth making first disgusted, then unhappy noises. I turned my head to look at them over my shoulder and whined softly. Hestra uttered a string of very rude language in her heavy accent. Carth agreed with her, covering his nose with his sleeve.

If I could have raised an eyebrow I would have. Instead I trotted over to the speeder and after making sure the coast was clear changed back to my original shape. I spoke as I belted my gear on. "I think there are some tarps in the side compartment here. It's not going to smell very good but we should wrap the body."

Hestra nodded. "We'll drop ye off a' th' _Hawk_."

I definitely raised my eyebrow at that one, but I didn't say anything. Rather I snorted softly and got out the tarps. I didn't like Hestra's implication, that she wasn't planning on telling me squat about the dead young man or why they'd been looking for him.

So, in retaliation, I let Carth and Hestra do the dirty work.

On the way back to the _Hawk_ Carth tried to breathe through his nose as little as possible. The smell of the body was foul even though he and Hestra had wrapped it as best as they could. Even though he was a pilot he'd seen his fair share of bodies in his time; though this one was different. The young man hadn't been killed by Sith or Jedi, or even soldiers; he'd been killed by kath hounds. It was tragic, but it happened. It was what a coroner would call a natural death, though Carth was severely uncomfortable with that term.

"As far as I can tell, he was killed by a bite to the back of the skull," Sabine said quietly as they neared the _Hawk_. "Common tactic for kath hounds; the pack runs the prey down and one leaps on its back for the killing blow. There's a huge chance he died instantly, with no pain." She touched Carth and Hestra's shoulders in comfort. She didn't apologize for the death, or that she was sorry she couldn't have done more. Carth found that refreshing.

Sabine said nothing as she hopped from the speeder but shot Hestra and Carth a look. It said _I'll let it slide for now, but don't think that means I'll forget about it._ She stood watching them as Carth turned the speeder to leave again, and just so that she couldn't try to follow them later he picked a different direction than what he would need to get to either the Sandral or Matale estates.

"So what's our next move?" Carth asked as soon he was positive that they were out of hearing range for Sabine. "Ahlan would make things worse if he went to him first, and there's a good chance Janeth will kill Shen when she finds out her son is dead."

Hestra nodded. She had her long-barreled rifle in her lap, and she tapped it contemplatively. "E'ther way, sh' needs t' know."

Carth sighed. "I think you should go get Ahlan, and I'll go talk to Janeth." Hestra gave him a sharp look, and he spoke before she could give comment. "I know what it's like… to lose a son." He had to clear his throat before continuing, feeling it close up from the old pain. "I think I can talk her down."

Hestra's eyes softened, and she nodded. "I've los' f'lk too," she said. "But n'v'r a kid. It's a g'd plan."

Carth nodded and turned the speeder towards the Matale estate. It hurt to bring back all the old memories of his son and of his late wife, but he would do it to help save someone else's son. No one deserved to feel that pain.

To Be Continued…

6


	33. Chapter 33

Gone For Good Chapter 33; Sleepwalk

**Chapter 33 **

**Sleepwalk **

_The first thing he heard as he came into the house was soft, familiar singing. He could hear cutlery and pots clinking as well, and the rich smell of cooking nerf steak and fresh bread filled his nose. He could have called out to let her know he was home, but he decided not to in favor of listening to her voice. He hung his coat on the rack by the door and placed the access key for the house and his speeder in their place. Quietly, he snuck into the master bedroom and put his blaster in the safe. On his way out towards the kitchen he smiled at the small room off the master bedroom. It was painted in bright, cheerful colors, and filled with such furniture as a crib, a changing table, and a small chest of toys. It always warmed his heart to see it. _

_He was able to sneak up on his wife and wrap his arms around her. She laughed as he kissed into her shoulder. "Carth! You didn't say anything!" _

"_Mmm, I wanted to surprise you," he answered as he kissed up her neck. "How's my favorite girl doing?" _

_The woman, Morgana, pressed her back into the attention. "Lonely without you, but good. Dustil has been keeping me busy." _

_Carth gave his wife a last squeeze before going to the small bassinet where his month-old son lay, half asleep. The baby opened his eyes all the way and wiggled, squealing at the sight of his father. Carth gathered the baby boy into his arms and cuddled him against his shoulder, speaking in soft exaggerated tones to him. He turned to see Morgana smiling at him, the light from the window turning her brown eyes a warm, rich shade and lighting streaks of gold in her brown hair. "I love you," he told her, his son warm and alive against his chest. _

"_I love you too," she answered him, her voice rich with love. He couldn't imagine wanting anything more than that look and those words spoken in her voice._

Carth set his mouth in a grim line as he approached the sentry droid guarding the Sandral estate. Despite the foul smell of what he was carrying in the back of the speeder he could still smell the sweet scent his wife had used to wash her hair. He could still feel little Dustil against his chest, warm and alive and smelling uniquely like only an infant did. It made him want to drink again, but it had long since lost the power to make him tear through the stars for any lead he could find.

After the attack on his homeworld Carth had searched long and hard for his son, who had been reported missing among both the survivors and dead of Telos IV. Nearly a year later Carth's hope to find his son alive had dwindled into despair. By then all the leads and trails that he was following were cold. He had started to wonder if Dustil had survived at all; or if the boy had been killed in the attack on Telos with his body destroyed past any means of discovery, let alone identification.

He knew what it was like to sit in a house with only memories and a bottle of liquor for company. He knew how much it hurt to know that the most precious thing that you had brought into the galaxy was gone, now and forever.

At least Janeth would know for certain instead of struggle between wondering and grieving. Of course that was small comfort, Carth thought bitterly as the sentry guard let him through.

He landed the speeder some distance away and made sure the smell would not travel on the wind to the Sanral estate's front door. Once again Janeth came striding out, her dark eyes hot with bitter anger. Her eyes swept over the scene like a hawk's.

"You're alone this time," Janeth said. She tried to keep her voice somewhat neutral but the hot undertone was still so prevalent that it was impossible to miss. "Has Ahlan decided to return my Casus to me?"

Carth looked straight into Janeth's eyes and tried to convey his sympathy, but more importantly his understanding. "Ahlan never took Casus, Janeth," He said softly.

The woman's eyes narrowed and flickered to the speeder, which was parked much further away than last time. She said nothing for a few long moments. "Where is my son?" she asked, her angry tone flat.

"He died," Carth said sofly. "He was killed by kath hounds, kilometers away from the nearest farm. There was no evidence of any speeders other than his having ever parked there. There was no trace of any vehicle or sentient-made disturbance of any kind." He could have paused after his first two words and let Janeth absorb them, but he wanted to get as much information out there as possible. The last thing he wanted was for her to make assumptions and then take them out on Shen.

Janeth's eyes went wide with shock but narrowed quickly again with fury. Her hands, which were delicate but mildly work-roughed, clenched into tight fists. "I'll kill him," she breathed, a low and dangerous sound.

Carth had no idea if she meant Ahlan or Shen, but he thought that it hardly mattered. He put his hands up in a soothing, _I'm not a threat_ gesture. "Things happen every day that are out of our control," he said. "That's no reason to take it out on people who haven't done anything wrong."

"You have no right to speak!" she howled. "You have NO RIGHT!"

"My son died too," Carth said, his voice rough. He swallowed and found he couldn't hold Janeth's gaze. He whispered. "My son died too."

Janeth's shoulders sagged and she looked at the speeder parked behind Carth with tears in her eyes. "Is that Casus? Is that my baby?"

Carth moved to block her path as she tried to get past him. "Janeth, you don't want to look," he said.

She relented fairly easily but shook her head as she stood close. Her eyes were hot with emotion. "I won't let this go," she said. "I won't." There was no doubt that she meant she wasn't going to let the death of her son pass quietly. With Ahlan nestled in his own estate there was only one other person she could take her fury and grief out on.

Carth saw immediately that he couldn't talk her down. He knew the feeling, knew that it had taken months of actively searching for the anger to wear down into weariness. He wasn't sure what he would do, and he couldn't help but glance at the many droids around the property. If he tried to stop Janeth by force they would kill him. Armed with only a pair of blaster pistols and human reflexes, he wouldn't stand a chance against them.

Just when it seemed that Janeth was ready to charge back into the Sandral estate and take out her vengeance on Shen the sound of a speeder could be heard. Both Carth and Janeth turned to locate it, and Janeth's face darkened as her perimeter droids let it through without so much as a by-your-leave. Carth could see why, Mission's cerulean blue head could be seen in the back seat of the speeder. He had no doubts that she was capable of remote-hacking them. He felt a sense of foreboding as he saw that besides Hestra, Ahlan Matale was sitting in the speeder as well. He had none of his guard droids with him, and that meant that things could get very ugly very quickly. It didn't help that Hestra, like most of the _Ebon Hawk's _crew, was relatively used to traveling around only lightly armed.

Janeth's hands curled into tight fists as she saw Ahlan and Carth braced himself for anything. The speeder landed quickly and effectively and Hestra leaped out of it in an easy vault, having seemingly decided opening the door was too slow. He could sympathize, Ahlan cleared the speeder and rushed to confront Janeth with impressive speed. Hestra moved to flank him, positioning herself so that she could move in quickly if either Ahlan or Janeth started something. Her face was grim. She knew just as Carth did that the many droids in Janeth's control worked against their favor even with Mission present. A quick glanced revealed the young Twi'lek tapping away at her datapad speedily, her eyes flickering over the readout and her lekku writhing as she worked.

"You killed my son!" Janeth howled at Ahlan. Although his face hardened he took the accusation fairly well.

"I have done no such thing," Ahlan said calmly. "I was never angry with you, even after everything that you have done to my family and business over the years. Despite what you may think, I do not harm children."

Despite her dark complexion Janeth's face flushed red with anger. "Liar!" She immediately launched into a thorough description of just what she thought Ahlan was capable of. Carth's eyes widened at just how imaginative her language got. From the sound of it, Sabine had a thing or two to learn from the woman. Of course it was true he hadn't had the chance to hear Sabine in full swing too often, but Hestra had repeated some phrases with an amused chuckle from time to time.

Ahlan replied with short, curt sentences and seemed to settle in for a long argument. On her end, Janeth continued to rant at great length. Despite what was being thrown around Carth and Hestra were merely happy it was staying to words and gestures. They both dreaded when, and there was little doubt it would be a 'when' not an 'if', the confrontation turned violent.

"Stop yelling mom! Please!" Rahasia raced towards her mother, her eyes wide and upset and her voice pleading. Behind her was a young man who bore more than a little resemblance to Sabine and Mission. Carth did a double take and checked the speeder, which was definitely absent one blue Twi'lek. He had been so absorbed in the argument between Janeth and Ahlan that he hadn't noticed her sneak off. From the look on Hestra's face she had been similarly caught off guard.

At first Rahasia had little effect on her mother, but Ahlan's whole expression changed as he caught sight of his son. Shen hung back with Mission, who had a hand near her blaster and her datapad in hand. One lekku thrashed as it hung over her back, the part visible to the onlookers twitching violently. Her eyes were very serious for a fourteen year old's. She had seen her fair share of action on Taris and had personally seen such arguments just like the one between Janeth and Ahlan go sour.

Janeth paused in her ranting to see what had drawn Ahlan's attention. Her eyes locked onto Shen, not seeing her daughter for a moment, and she froze. A very dark emotion swept slowly over her face, but before she could do anything Rahasia threw herself in front of Shen. "Mom," she said in a very small voice. "Mom, please. I love him." Intelligently enough, Shen kept quiet. Mission did to, though she eyed the droids around the property with a wary eye and tapped on her datapad. Presumably, she was working on hacking as many of them as she could, just in case such was needed.

"What?" Janeth asked. She stared at her daughter, stunned by Rahasia's revelation. Carth and Hestra shot each other a glance. They were surprised as well, but they were also hopeful. If luck was with them the current situation could yet be solved without violence.

"Shen, do you feel the same way?" Ahlan's voice was quiet, though the look in his eyes was somewhat wary. He knew the consequences of what had just been said, both in the immediate and more distant future.

The young man who looked so much like Sabine spoke for the first time. He gathered himself up slightly and looked first his father, then Rahasia's mother square in the eye. Hestra grunted in approval, and Carth was distinctly reminded of Sabine when she became determined. "Yes," Shen said. His voice was a medium-deep tone and sounded utterly serious in the way that only young adults could. "I love Rahasia Sandral."

Janeth looked as if she didn't know what to make of it. She cast about herself like a lost kath pup, looking for anything that she could grasp onto. "Casus is dead," she said finally. Rahasia made a choked noise and buried her face in Shen's shoulder.

"Being angry isn't going to bring him back," Carth spoke softly. "At least you know what happened to him." He looked down at the grass, avoiding everyone's eyes. It still hurt him after all this time, after trying so hard to find any trace of a clue, not to know what had happened to his son.

"I don't want to see anyone for a while," Janeth said, shaking her head to fight back tears. "Just leave me alone." She stumbled at first as she started to walk towards the main door of her estate, but she gained both speed and balance as she continued. No one spoke until she was out of sight.

"I can't believe Casus is gone." Rahasia's voice was broken and partially muffled by Shen's tunic. He wrapped an arm around her and comforted her. "I don't know what mom is going to do. Casus and I were all she had."

Ahlan sighed heavily. "I would say that you are welcome in my home, but I think Janeth will react badly to that, considering the circumstances. The two of you should stay with the Jedi for now." Shen nodded and it was clear he was thankful that at least his father was taking his relationship with Rahasia well. He had expected a more fierce reaction.

"Can we leave, then?" Mission asked, both lekku twitching less violently than before but still constantly moving in a nervous gesture. "I don't want to stick around when the angry lady gets trigger happy."

"I'll take th' lovebirds," Hestra said, ignoring Mission's words with a tact Carth admired. "D' ye wan' t' come wi' me, or Carth?"

Mission practically raced over to Carth, trying to hide a disgusted look at Rahasia and Shen. "Which speeder are you taking?" she asked him intensely, as if her very life depended on the answer. Hestra shook her head, the corner of her mouth quirking up in a smile.

"We have to take care of Casus' body first," Carth said. Hestra nodded in agreement, her demeanor turning sober again. Mission snorted softly, the noise more a unique expression of her displeasure of the situation rather than derision or a light scoffing of a life lost. Before anyone could put up an opinion on what should be done with the body several droids approached the group.

"The mistress has requested that her son be given to us," the first one said. The other two were clearly utility droids and carried a stretcher between them.

"Follow me," Carth told them. They did so, carefully collecting Casus' body out of the back of the speeder Carth had driven into the estate. He was rather surprised at how delicate they were, and it improved his opinion of droids somewhat.

"Ew," Mission said. Though her tone was subdued her nose was scrunched up in disgust. At least she had the good manners to wait until the droids had disappeared into the estate. "Can we take the other speeder?"

Carth looked at Hestra in question and the old veteran nodded. "R'hasia, Shen, git in. I don' wan' t' hear any complainin' either." The young couple nodded and did as they were told, though Rahasia opted for the front passenger seat than one of the back seats. Shen took one of them without making a single noise in complaint. As Hestra settled into the pilot's seat Carth could see his gaze shift down to the seat next to him. His arm moved, and Carth could imagine the boy resting his hand there. He whispered something so softly that neither Rahasia nor Hestra heard it, or if they did it didn't show. Even though Carth hand't heard them either he could imagine them. He had been a soldier for a good while and 'goodbye, old friend' was the same thing no matter how you phrased it.

He sighed. Ahlan made a noise of agreement deep in his throat, a noise Carth had found universal to most males, of any species, and most soldiers. Mission shook her head, her lekku finally calming as they settled into a folded pattern around each other on her shoulders. "Poor kid," she said. "He wasn't much older than me, was he?"

"He was fifteen," Carth replied. The same age as his son had been.

There was a soft silence for a few moments where no one was exactly sure who should break it or what should be said next. It was Mission who spoke first. "Let's have a party back at the _Hawk_. That's what we did on Taris, whenever somebody died. We figured they were someplace better, right?"

Carth smiled. "Yeah. I like the sound of that." It was a good reason to have a little fun. Force only knew everyone on the _Hawk_ needed it.

"When you drop me off I can get you something for the party," Ahlan said. "I have some good Corellian whisky that I've been saving. This seems as good a reason as any to open it." Carth thanked him, and they all piled into the speeder.

Only fifteen, Carth thought. Casus had been to young to die, and so had Dustil. Once again he remembered the small infant tucked safely against his chest, and the look of pure love in his wife's eyes. It had been so fragile, though at the time he had thought it would never end.

He knew better now.

To Be Conintued…


	34. Chapter 34

Gone for Good Chapter 34; Brother

**Chapter 34 **

**Brother **

Light from the new dawn peered through my eyelids and roused me from sleep. I peeled them open carefully so that I wouldn't be blinded as I raised my head up slightly for a look; though I knew I wouldn't be able to see much. The sweet smell of crushed Dantooinan grass filled my nose as I gradually surfaced into consciousness. Soft birdsong and morning cries of prey-animals greeted my ears, but nothing that indicated danger. I checked the Force to be sure, but all I could sense was Bastila distantly through the bond. I was curled on my side, my back resting against Canderous' chest. Assured that we were safe, I closed my eyes briefly and buried my nose in his wrist and took a deep breath to savor his smell.

It had been two days since Hestra and Carth had taken me on their mysterious errand. I hadn't been able to pry any more information about it from them, which agitated me because I could sense in the Force how deeply it had affected them. Hestra was melancholy, carrying some burden of pain that I sensed was an old hat for her. She frowned more often and spoke in the thickest version of her accent I'd heard yet, but otherwise she kept it to herself. Carth on the other hand wore his grief out for everyone to see. He stopped maintaining what little grooming habits he was already keeping and sunk into as much liquor as he could get his hands on. He was good about keeping an eye on it too; I never had a good opportunity to get it away from him and hide it. I had no doubts that he was sharing with Danika, because while they both helped prepare the _Ebon Hawk_ for departure from Dantooine they were definitely not sober for most of it. I kept moving my stash of Danika's booze, but at this point it was, sadly, a pointless gesture.

Finally, the night before the _Ebon Hawk_ was due to leave Canderous had suggested, although not in so polite terms, that we should take one last night out under the stars. I had jumped at the opportunity. Now, the next morning, I nuzzled his wrist with my eyes closed. I wanted this moment to be well preserved in my memory. I knew that I would likely need it in the weeks ahead.

Bastila stirred, agitated, in the bond. Danika sung out to me through her end in a warning, the little brunette Jedi was looking for me. I sighed once before softly nipping Canderous' wrist. He came awake almost instantly and tucked his chin into the hollow formed by my throat and shoulder, his breath in hot opposition to the chill morning air. "_Akaan'ad_," he whispered into my ear. It sent a shiver of excitement up my spine, so I wiggled in retaliation.

"Canderous!" I hissed softly. I couldn't help but giggle. "Bastila's looking for me. We have to go." I could feel Danika's jubilation at riling Bastila and in turn I could feel the Padawan's frustration. Danika couldn't keep her stalled forever.

Canderous' arm tightened around me playfully. "Nah, let her find us. What could she do? She's only one Jedi."

Fear pooled in my stomach like ice and I went perfectly still in Canderous' arms. "It's not Bastila I'm worried about," I told him, my voice barely above a whisper. "It's the Council. They have the real power, and Bastila's loyal to them."

There was a pause from the Mandalorian behind me before he spoke. "We could fix that," he said. "Dead Jedi have no power." I could sense his seriousness in the Force.

"No," I answered reluctantly. I levered myself into a sitting position and started gathering my clothing. "I need them to understand what's going on with Danika and me. Not to mention the Republic needs them. There's still a war on. Do you really want to see Malak win?"

The veteran sat up as well and gave me a suggestive look as I dressed. He shrugged. "I don't think it would make much of a difference."

I wiggled my rear teasingly at him as I slipped into my trousers. "If Malak wins, _cyar'ika_, he'll hunt down every Jedi he can find and kill or turn them, and last I checked I'm a Jedi now." I tossed one of his boots at him and he caught it with a soft grunt, his steely gray eyes serious.

Canderous continued to watch me for several moments in silence as I finished dressing and arranged all my gear. "I will do anything for you, _akaan'ad_," he said softly. I paused in adjusting my tactical harness and met his eyes, feeling the depth of his emotions for me through the Force. He had plenty of Force-resistance training, which meant that he had to be presenting this on purpose. "I will fight with you until the end. _Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum_" I knew the Mandalorian phrase immediately. It's literal translation was "I know you forever." It meant "I love you" and while he'd said it to me before, this time it felt like a promise.

I felt a mirror image of what Canderous was letting show in the Force. I knelt before to the Mandalorian veteran and gave him a deep, lingering kiss. "_Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum_," I told him. "Forever."

"That's all I ever wanted," he replied. Through the bond, I could feel Bastila's rush of frustrated triumph. Since I knew that Danika hadn't given up my location Bastila had most likely managed to make it off the ship. She would be expanding her search perimeter soon. I stayed close enough for Canderous' body heat to warm me for a little while longer before I rose to face the day.

As soon as Danika was sure Sabine was in the clear, she retired to the _Ebon Hawk's_ cockpit. She dropped her body into the co-pilot's seat, eliciting a rush of air from the fake leather seat cushion, and put her feet up on the single small square of free space on the control board. Carth immediately handed her a bottle of whiskey. He raised his own bottle, his eyes red from a full belly of booze and grief. "To youth," he said wearily.

Danika raised her bottle to his and clinked them gently together. "To irritating secrets," she replied. Almost as one, they took healthy swigs from their respective bottles. "I swear, if Sabine wasn't around I'd get gray hair prematurely from dealing with Bastila. She's like a prattler; those are little birds on Deralia that can't stop chatting aaaall summer long." She sighed and took another sip.

"It was grain finches on Telos IV," he said. "They made a lot of annoying noise too, but they let the farmers know if there were rincoots in the fields."

"There were a lot of orchards on Deralia," Danika replied. She tapped a button on the control board and brought up one of the _Hawk's_ external cameras. "Sab's back." She chuckled into her whiskey bottle. "Bastila just missed her, looks like."

"What kind of orchards were they?" Carth asked. He stared through the forward viewport, his eyes slightly unfocused.

"You know what, I can't remember." Danika grunted softly and frowned at Dantooine's rolling grasslands. She added a dissatisfied noise as she searched through her memory and found only a vague recollection of a clustered group of trees. She didn't like it that she couldn't supply Carth with a ready answer. She was definitely feeling the effects of the drinking she had started in on with the pilot before Bastila's hissy fit over a missing Sabine, but that shouldn't have handicapped her. It certainly hadn't before. "Ask me something else," she said to Carth. "Any stupid little detail about my past that comes into your head."

Carth gave her a sidelong look that said she was acting like a crazy person. "Okay." He took another sip from his bottle and took his time to taste it before swallowing, mulling the request over. "What was your favorite hiding place as a kid?"

"It was… a cave?" Danika idly swirled the whiskey in her bottle for something to do with her hands. She remembered someplace dark, but warm. "No, that can't be right." She swirled the whiskey faster, feeling that itch of something left undone again. She stopped the motion long enough to take a couple of long swallows from the bottle. Even absorbed as he was in his own pain, Carth noticed immediately and grew alarmed.

"Danika, maybe you should take it easy," he said carefully. He knew that he had little room to criticize, but he didn't like the look in Danika's eyes. He knew when someone was trying to bury their troubles in a bottle and getting dangerously close to going too far. He'd been there himself plenty of times.

Danika set the bottle down reluctantly but kept her hand on it. She leveled Carth with an unnerving stare, and although he wanted very much to turn away from it he found that he couldn't. "….I'll think about it," she said. Her tone was low and filled with the promise of enforcing her will. It made Carth nervous, and he'd stared down his fair share of intimidating opponents during both of the recent wars.

Carth took another drink from his bottle and considered leaving the cockpit. He worried at his wedding ring, turning it around his finger as he considered Danika from the corner of his eye. He still cared for her, no matter that she'd just given him a deep seated uneasiness. He would stay, if only to make sure she didn't crack her head on a sharp corner if she passed out from drinking too much.

I arrived at the _Ebon Hawk_ separately from Canderous. I could tell through the bond that Bastila wasn't on the ship, so I sashayed through the hall to the refresher. Juhani saw me on the way, her nose flaring in my direction. She raised an eyebrow in question, no doubt catching Canderous' very male scent blended with my own. I gave her a jaunty, deliberately off version of the traditional military salute as I disappeared into the 'fresher.

As I was finishing with my shower I felt Bastila reach out for the bond and find me. Although Danika and I had taken to using it as subtle long-distance communication Bastila seemed to be reluctant to use it at all. As soon as she sensed me I felt an immediate retreat. I sighed as I stepped out of the 'fresher unit and dressed, knowing that I was going to face an interrogation as soon as I stepped out into the ship proper.

Sure enough I found Bastila in the main room. She was sitting in one of the chairs and leveling her best glare in my direction. With my neatly folded dirty clothes in hand, I returned her gaze with a steady look in my own. After dealing with Danika's intense siren stare I was less than impressed with Bastila's attempt.

As the staring contest continued, Bastila faltered and looked away from me. She cleared her throat and when she looked back she showed me an expression carefully cleared of emotion. Danika wandered in from the direction of the _Hawk_'s cockpit, swaggering to cover up how inebriated she was. She opened the preserver's door and rifled in it for something to eat.

Bastila ignored Danika and spoke carefully, looking troubled. Although she probably thought she was keeping herself well controlled, I could see her conflict of emotions in the Force as well. "Would you answer a few questions?" she asked quietly.

"That depends on the questions," I answered. Although I wanted to use my usual jaunty banter tone I suppressed the urge and kept things polite. I doubted Bastila would react well to anything less. I shifted my body weight over one foot and cocked my other leg to keep my stance casual, letting her know that I was relaxed. The young Padawan swallowed and shifted nervously.

"On what planet were you born?" Bastila asked. Her anxiety ratcheted up a notch as she asked it and although she looked at me she didn't meet my eyes. I schooled my own reactions to her emotions so that they wouldn't light up in the Force.

"Deralia…" I answered slowly, giving Bastila a look that said I didn't like the dressing down. "What's it to you? You requested Danika and I to be transferred to the _Endar Spire._ You had to have read our files."

"Well yes, but I wanted to get to know you as more than a file." Her reply was smooth and she kept her eyes firmly fixed on mine. I could sense her relax in the Force a fraction. "What sort of background did you have before joining the Republic Armed Forces?"

I bristled at that question. It was all that I could do not to go absolutely stock still, both in my body language and the Force. I knew that my past was conflicted, that my memories didn't match up with certain facts. Bastila was testing to make sure that I hadn't caught on. "I was a mechanic," I answered, using every ounce of self control to keep a stiff note from my voice. "And a pilot, but that was mostly for show. Pilots are more in demand than mechanics, at least when you're trying to get off-world. I became a smuggler after I met Danika. We had a legitimate freelancing transport business to make it look legal."

It didn't take a Force-sensitive to see the palpable relief in Bastila's body language. She smiled at me pleasantly, and although I knew it was her best diplomatic face it made her look painfully young, at least to me. Then again, I could sense the extent of her feelings in the Force, and I knew her better than I should according to my memories. "That wasn't so difficult," she said cheerily. "Thank you for bearing with me." She stood up, the movement just as fluid and efficient of movement as I would expect from a well trained fighter. There was something very, very familiar about the observation, but I couldn't and didn't want to try and place it right then with Bastila so close.

Covering up anything that might show in the Force, I gave Bastila a sarcastic bow. "Good to hear you're pleased, your Highness." I kept my tone even and serious, though I let the corner of my mouth lilt up a little, just in case the joke flew over Bastila's head.

I was rewarded with indignant sputtering and a stiff-backed Padawan. "Excuse me?" the teenager demanded. "What did you just call me?" Her eyes bugged out of her head. I gave her a devilish grin and walked past her for the women's dormitory. Danika, having appropriated something edible, snickered in my wake.

"I demand an explanation!" My sharp ears didn't pick up what Danika said that kept the brunette from chasing after me, but the tone and my sense of Danika through the bond was clear; lighten up, it's just a joke. She's only doing that to get a reaction from you, so stop giving such good ones. It was a rare maternal moment for Danika, and despite the fact that it would double the effort that either of us had to put in to poke fun at Bastila in the future I wasn't angry. Really, it would be best if the kid learned to lighten up.

Juhani and Mission were in the women's dormitory. The cathar Jedi sat cross legged on her bunk and projected a serene aura in the Force that indicated she was meditating. Mission was also on her bunk, but she was surrounded by various mechanical parts. She directed an intense look of concentration at her datapad as she fiddled. I could feel her single-minded concentration in the Force, and beneath it her lingering grief and pain over seeing her home planet devastated by the Sith.

"Hey Sab, can you come with me to buy some stuff?" Mission never looked up from her work as she spoke to me, and I could sense that her concentration never wavered. She was a smart, capable kid and she had a lot of potential.

I wedged my dirty clothes behind the locker underneath my bunk that contained my clean things before answering. "Sure. Are you ready to go?"

There was a flurry of movement from Mission's bunk as I checked that Danika's flask was still securely stashed and hadn't been tampered with. When I glanced in her direction I saw lekku piled around her shoulders and securely out of the way as she tapped at her datapad and double-checked the parts scattered over her bunk. "Now I'm ready!"

"Okay," I answered as I evaluated her carefully. "Just what are you planning to buy this stuff with anyway?" I didn't know how many credits she'd had when she'd left Taris, but I'd seen her skills at the pazaak table back in the Hidden Bek base. No doubt she could have found any score of marks to swindle with that very same talent, not to mention more shady skills, while here on Dantooine.

"Oh, I've got plenty of credits." Mission gathered her datapad and checked the various pieces of gear she wore as she climbed out of the mess on her bunk, not quite willing to look me in the eyes. From the swirl of emotions in her aura she was thinking back on when I had hauled her away from her pazaak game in the Hidden Bek base in order to force her to take a turn in the 'fresher. Ever since that incident she'd taken to keeping herself clean, even if she wasn't absolutely fastidious about it.

"Right." I rubbed my hands together and feigned enthusiasm. I had a good idea of where Mission wanted to go to buy parts for her little project, whatever it was, and I wasn't looking forward to it. "Let's get this over with."

Sure enough, Mission headed straight into the Enclave for the mechanically inclined section. It housed the generator that powered the Enclave, save for the outlets on the landing pads, vehicles for Jedi-related use, a droid repair and maintenance bay and a spare parts storage area. The entire thing was run by Mik Keth, a young Omwati male. He was shorter than Danika and despite his willowy build was a good engineer. He ran a personal parts shop out of a spare storage room near the vehicle bay, using his own credits to buy parts off travelers passing through Dantooine's system as well as the locals and then selling them for a small profit.

Mik was Force-sensitive but hadn't made the cut to become a fully fledged Jedi. He'd transferred from Coruscant to Dantooine sometime during the Mandalorian Wars and had promptly taken up residence in the Enclave as one of the head mechanics. Normally a regular Jedi would have occupied his position, typically full Jedi occupied every position except clerical ones, but two consecutive wars had forced every able-bodied lightsaber-wielder into battle.

The little man was polishing a small part as Mission and I approached his little store, which was really just a converted storage space. It was surrounded by other storage spaces of various sizes. All of them were located in a hall that led between the garage and the main Enclave compound. The décor was similar to the rest of the Enclave; sparse, simple, and lit by as much natural light as possible. Mik himself dressed to reflect this attitude in a simple tan tunic and darker trousers. The outfit set off blue skin and white, pearlescent "hair" nicely. Since his species was bird-like the "hair" resembled a more feather-like substance, but it was on his head so the word according to it's meaning in Basic applied.

"Hey, Mission! It's always a treat to see you." My ears grated at the sound of Mik's high, fluting voice. He'd been accepted into the Jedi at a very young age and while he attempted to mimic patterns of speech that would have been common among his peers he couldn't quite manage it. The overall effect was discordant, but not in a displeasing way. In a full Omwati it was probably more musical.

One of Mission's lekku slipped and draped down her right shoulder, a clear indicator that she was comfortable. "Did you get those parts I asked for?" Her face lit up with an intensely focused eagerness managed most easily by the very young.

Mik favored Mission with a satisfied smile. "Yes, I most certainly did." He pulled a medium sized box from behind the counter of the converted storage area and presented it with a flourish. The movement accented thin fingers and for some reason made me nervous.

Reaching out to the bond, I checked Bastila's proximity. She was currently in the Council chamber and locked down tight from my perception. Although I didn't like that she was hiding things from me, and from Danika as well, her current position and orientation in the Force gave me an advantage. I gathered in my thoughts and emotions to still them, focusing on breathing evenly. I then opened up my perceptions in the Force and took a closer look at Mik as he haggled prices with Mission.

The omwati was calm and in high spirits despite the ongoing war and relative emptiness of the Enclave. He clearly had a sharp mind, and although his attitude was mellow enough there was a bold confidence in him that suggested he wasn't a pushover. The whole mix seemed… familiar.

Mik's head snapped to look at me as Mission sorted through the box one final time, a startled look projecting out of royal blue eyes. Still openly sensing him in the Force, I could feel a flicker of connection and understanding. In the next moment I shut myself down, dimming my Force awareness its most basic level. Transitioning smoothly, I made like I was interested in Mission's parts and ignored Mik.

"Okay," Mission said, causing the omwati to reluctantly re-direct his attention from me. "I'll pay sixty seven credits for the whole box." She counted out a stack of credit chips as she spoke, thus spelling out the finality of her decision. Mik decided not to argue and accepted the credits. His eyes flicked to me once, but otherwise he betrayed none of his feelings.

"Hey, why don't you head back to the ship ahead of me, Mish?" I kept my tone and body language jovial, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Most beings in Mik's positions would have stiffened up or otherwise started to show outward sides of nervousness and anxiety. Instead, the little omwati's body language loosened. Although the intensity of my ability to see musculature in fine detail had faded, I could see Mik shift his weight to the balls of his feet. It was what any well-trained warrior would do.

"Sure!" Mission agreed readily, probably due to her eagerness to finish whatever project she had splayed over her bunk on the _Hawk. _Whatever her reasons were they got her out of the area quickly, quietly, and without suspicion on her part.

Once the teenage twi'lek was out of my line of sight I favored Mik with a level look, never wavering or blinking. He stared right back, a muscle working on his jaw. "You shouldn't be talking to me," he said finally. His usually upbeat discordant voice was pitched to lower tones.

"I've been getting a funny feeling from you ever since I landed here, so it's not a real surprise to hear you say that," I replied. I spoke in a low tone as well and I kept my stance solid. Even if he was an excellent fighter, I had nearly a foot of height and fifty more pounds on a thicker frame than he did. Part of him wouldn't be able to help but be intimidated.

Mik shook his head. "Speaking with me is not going to help. Nothing will help so long as you are here, on Dantooine." The look in his eyes was earnest, and he was deliberately projecting in the Force so that I could feel his sincerity without having to open up my perception.

I stepped forward with slow, graceful movements that both felt natural and carried a predatory threat. I enforced that perception by placing a single hand on the counter and bringing my face down to a slightly lower level, but still above Mik's. I expected him to back up to gain more space between us, to lean in closer to show that he wasn't going to be so easily threatened, or even an attempt to run.

What I didn't expect was for him to place an elegant, thin boned hand over mine and lean in to look deeply into my eyes. "You _will_ find what you are looking for, but it will not be with me. It will not be now." For the first time since I'd met him, Mik's voice was beautiful and lilting song. His actions startled me, but they came with a feeling I had experienced once before, back when I had first met Canderous on Taris.

I knew Mik. I knew him from a memory that I couldn't readily call to the forefront of my mind.

The discovery almost blew a flashing spark of emotion into the bond. I had to turn away from Mik to gather myself together again, and he was nice enough to let me go. It was a hard struggle; everything was suddenly too clear. I could smell everything from clean omwati to a fragrant food stain on the floor from several hours ago. The air was cool on my skin and dead calm, the duracrete floor solid and unyielding beneath my feet. Small cracks and discoloration marred the earth-colored walls from the weight of the years. I'm sure a lack of people and droids to maintain the place didn't help. To top everything off, there was a tang in the back of my throat.

When the world around me dulled into sensory input that was more tolerable, I turned my head slightly so that Mik could hear me. "We'll talk when I come back." Mik and I both knew I meant when I returned to Dantooine and not just his shop. Saying nothing further, I left the hallway the same way Mission had.

My sharp ears picked up on a scuffle in the courtyard as I emerged from the hallway; two voices, high pitched and female, arguing hotly. I recognized one of them as Mission almost immediately and rushed towards her, to the small alcove that housed the archway leading to the landing pads.

Although the weather was mild Dantooine's seasons were continuing to turn. The sun was shining down freely into the courtyard; it warmed my back and shoulders as well as bringing out a shine on the smooth skin of Mission's skull. Standing before her, flushed and frustrated, was another twi'lek. She was an older female with pale yellow skin and a more elaborate headdress. The initial design was of dark leather that complimented her pale skin, and was enhanced by some kind of metallic inlay in a complex, but not crowded, pattern. The rest of her clothing reflected the style; simple at first glance but upon further examination subtly intriguing. Of course all of that seemed to being going right over Mission's head at the moment. She was arguing with the older twi'lek vigorously.

"_You didn't want me tagging along! That's why Griff said I had to stay behind!" _Mission growled. Her lekku writhed in agitation and her body language was stiff. The box of recently purchased parts was pressed to her side and nearly forgotten in light of current events.

The woman shook her head, her forehead wrinkling in a deep frown. She looked around herself nervously, like she was expecting someone else. I extended my senses in the Force to see if there was anyone beyond her and quickly discovered we were alone. She noticed me almost immediately in her quick search, but she ignored me in favor of Mission. _"Look, I can't stay_ _Misson,"_ the woman started backing up towards the door as she spoke.

"_Hey! I'm not finished with you!"_ Mission's feelings radiated in the Force like the warning sirens that announced a leaking hyperdrive. She was deeply hurt, and it was an old, old pain.

Before the woman could turn and race away, I strode towards her with purpose, using a quick probe of the Force towards her to get her attention on me and keep her in one place. _"Who are you so worried about?" _I demanded, speaking in the native twi'lek language of Ril. _"Who are you looking for?"_

I could feel Mission's agitation, now coming from behind me, as I stared down the woman. Her pale yellow lekku went absolutely still and she looked up at me with dark brown eyes, pleading to be let go. "_Griff! I'm done with that loser, I don't want to see him again. He'll just ask me for credits." _

I didn't know who Griff was, but Misison did. As soon as the other twi'lek mentioned the name, Mission reacted with confusion. The whole business was beginning to annoy me, mostly because I had no idea about what was going on. "Mission?" I asked in basic. "Who's Griff?"

"He's my brother, b-but I don't understand… Last time I saw him, he was with that womp rat, I mean Lena." Mission indicated the pale yellow twi'lek woman. The teenager truly did look confused, and she was more hurt than ever.

"He's not here_,_" I told the woman, who must be Lena. After hearing my words, she sagged in visible relief and stopped looking for a quick exit. She shook her head and gave Mission a pitying look. I braced myself for an outburst from the teenager; I had firsthand experience that she didn't appreciate pity.

"Mission, I wanted you to come with us," Lena said. Her tone was gentle and her eyes full of sympathy and regret. "Griff told me you didn't want to leave Taris. I argued with him, I couldn't believe he'd really just leave you like that; I mean who would leave a child out on the street like that? But he said that we could come back for you once we made enough credits. He said the Hidden Beks would look after you, and that you wouldn't really be on your own." She twisted the strap of her bag, her expression torn. "He was so convincing."

"You're lying!" Mission wailed. She looked every inch the child she was at the moment, no matter how she preferred to be called otherwise. "Griff wouldn't do that! He wouldn't say that!" She looked over at me desperately. "Tell me she's lying!" No doubt she wanted me to look into the Force. It was a well known fact, when so much else about Jedi was rumor, that they could always tell when someone was lying. The problem with Lena was that she was telling the truth, and no matter how much I knew it would hurt Mission to hear it, I also knew that I couldn't lie to her.

So I shook my head, keeping my expression as neutral as possible in order to keep the sympathy out of it. "She's not lying, Mission." Tears immediately welled up in her eyes, and she looked back and forth between me and Lena like we had just smacked her.

"He wouldn't do that. He just wouldn't." Mission's voice was small and high pitched. Her swirling emotions grated at me through the Force, jagged lines of pain that made one part of me irritated and stirred another part to a desire to give comfort. Red-rimed eyes, hardened from soft brown to liquid pools akin to polished wood, turned to me. She opened her mouth, I could see her throat work as she tried to speak, but no sound emerged. She turned and fled out the door towards the landing pads, and I let her go. I'd find her in a minute.

I turned to Lena. "Do you know where Griff might have gone?" Mission might be upset now, but she'd want any information that she could get on her brother as soon as she recovered. I knew, with an odd pang of familiarity, that I would if our situations were reversed.

Lena shook her head with a fed up look I'd seen on more than one woman before. "I don't know. Last time I saw him, he said something about going to Tatooine to make a fortune working the mines there." Her voice was full of mirth and dark sarcasm. "As if anyone ever made a fortune mining! Anyway, that was so many years ago, he's probably moved on."

"It's something though." I patted her shoulder as I walked past, using a little more force than necessary. "All the same, you'd probably better steer clear of the kid until we leave Dantooine. She's big enough to hold a vibrosword now, and she'll be pretty mad at you when she gets past being hurt." I could feel Lena's alarm like a bright flare in the Force. It was accompanied by a strangled noise from her, and then a quick scrambling to get to the nearest exit in the opposite direction that Mission had taken.

Feeling the packed, familiar earth of Dantooine underneath my feet, I turned and followed Mission. I hardly needed to physically track where she'd been, not when she was still radiating so many negative feelings out into the Force. It was like following a glow light the size of my head in darkness deep as any pitch; she lit up in my awareness that brightly. She caused some alarm among the small population of Jedi in range within the Enclave to sense her, and as I passed by the _Ebon Hawk_ towards the main complex there was a gaggle of children standing outside and looking in the direction that Mission had fled. A tall human boy with a ruff of bright red, messy hair pointed in her direction with wide eyes. "She went that way, Master!" His speech was lined thickly with the Coruscanti accent of someone who'd been raised in the main Jedi Temple. I didn't bother to correct him on my title, it never mattered to Jedi initiates; especially one who was so young.

As I kicked up my speed a notch and trotted, skirting the Enclave's main complex for the rolling fields of grass beyond, another face flashed into my mind. It was another boy, also young, with a head of neatly trimmed blond hair with more wheat in it that gold and big, clear blue eyes like Dantooine's sky just before it rained. I got the feeling that the boy I saw in my mind was an adult now. He hadn't been looking at me at the time, although he had been standing next to someone who was.

Her face was rounded with youth and her hair was drawn back in a simple braid that draped over one shoulder. Her powder blue eyes were looking at me just as Mission had been just recently, except they were dry. She couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen, but there was no mistaking that this was Bastila.

I felt a shock even as I paced myself through Dantooine's terrain in Mission's trail. When in a Corellian hell had I seen Bastila at that age? Although she and the young boy were clear in my memory the building behind them wasn't. I didn't know exactly what planet I had been on, and I didn't try to dig around for that tidbit of information. My earlier commitment to put off sorting out whatever strangeness was going on with me and Danika until we got well and clear of Dantooine's Jedi Council still held firm.

Even as I put the memory aside for a later time I couldn't help but wonder, just a little bit. I couldn't help but feel my heart ache.

To Be Continued….


End file.
